Precision Medicine

Precision medicine enables highly personalized therapeutic strategies based on an individual's genetic, molecular, and environmental characteristics. ^[1] Its approaches have received significant investment to create new therapies, learn more about disease processes, and potentially prevent diseases before they arise. ^[2]

It replaces a one-size-fits-all approach with patient stratification, since therapeutic response may vary on the basis of heterogeneous clinical and molecular phenotypes. ^[3] Advances in next-generation sequencing, molecular profiling, and biomarker-driven approaches have enhanced diagnostic accuracy and optimized treatment selection. ^[1] Emerging tools such as medical digital twins, a constantly updating virtual copy that enables analysis, simulation, and prediction, are being developed to enable precision medicine and medical artificial intelligence. ^[4]

In ageing research the same individualized logic is applied so that multimodal biomarkers and precision medicine may transform vascular aging from an inevitable process into a modifiable determinant of health span. ^[5] Personalized medicine is called for as it applies to exercise and geroscience, given the inter-individual variability in adaptation to exercise demonstrated in older adult cohorts. ^[6]

Precision medicine has revolutionized cancer treatment, with targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and liquid biopsy techniques significantly improving patient outcomes while minimizing adverse effects compared to conventional treatments. ^[1] The approach is being extended beyond oncology to conditions such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, where a one-size-fits-all approach to the management of chronic lung diseases is no longer appropriate. ^[7] Challenges such as tumor heterogeneity, treatment resistance, high costs, and limited accessibility continue to hinder widespread clinical adoption, and precision medicine investments may come at the expense of existing public health measures that could have a greater impact on population health. ^{[1] [2]}