Stratified and Precision Medicine

Despite tremendous advances in making an accurate diagnosis, most therapeutic program are designed for the “average model patient.” However, “one-size-fits-all-approach,” treatments can be very successful for only some patients but not for many others. On the other hand, this has changed with rapid advances made in evidence-based personalized medicine. The whole process involves a stepwise approach in building the holistic picture referred to as stratified medicine with the ultimate aim of individualized or personalized therapeutic interventions. Emerging prospects of affordable and highly sensitive next generation genome sequencing methods offer to unravel specific clinically relevant personalized genomic signatures enabling the busy clinicians to offer bespoke diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic information. The availability of targeted molecular therapy in tumor stratification and in other systemic disorders has opened doors to a new era of clinical medicine. This chapter briefly summarizes scope and limitations of genetic and genomic applications in an new exciting opportunity for stratified, personalized medicine and precision medicine. Exciting new developments and promising future lies ahead.