Gene tests at GP for treatments tailored to you
FAMILY doctors are to offer genetic tests to find out which medicines will work best with individual patients’ DNA. ‘Precision medicine’ techniques have previously been used in hospitals to treat rare genetic diseases.
But now GPs will offer them for the first time to tackle more common conditions such as depression and asthma.
It is hoped individually tailored treatments will save the NHS time and money and avoid side effects in patients whose genetic make-up means certain drugs are unsuitable.
Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies has urged the health service ‘to act fast’ to adopt the new approach.
A pilot scheme to provide targeted treatment for asthma, depression and high cholesterol is being launched in East Anglia next month and, if successful, is likely to be adopted elsewhere.
Dr Alina Roser, a University of Cambridge specialist involved in the programme, said: ‘I am very excited by this. This form of testing will help revolutionise how we can treat patients using more targeted therapies.
‘It will improve the safety and effectiveness of medicines, moving medicine into a new era away from the one-size-fits-all, trial- and- error approach we currently use.
‘For example, it can take up to four months to get the right treatment for depression and sometimes patients tend to lose hope during this time, putting them at higher risk of suicide. This would mean we could quickly find the drug they will respond to best.
‘This form of medicine could not only save millions in NHS money but extend lives and improve quality of life for patients. It signals a new dawn in precision medicine.’
Dr Roser hopes that in the future patients could visit a pharmacist for a simple genetic test and receive a suitable treatment straight away. ‘This is my vision,’ she told the Sunday Express.
The project is being run by the Eastern Academic Health Science Network in two areas.
In Cambridgeshire, it will be trialled at up to ten GP surgeries and involve about 200 patients. It will initially focus on prescribing anti- depressants and drugs for familial hypercholesterolemia, an inherited condition leading to high cholesterol.
In North East Essex, the pilot scheme will treat children with uncontrolled asthma, using genetic testing to tailor the best individual drug treatments for them. The researchers hope they will be able to identify which children will respond best to steroid treatment.
Victoria Corbishley, of the Eastern Academic Health Science Network, said: ‘We are excited about this work, which will see more personalised medicine brought into the family surgery.
‘ This could save lives and improve quality of lives, helping people live with conditions with fewer side effects.
‘This will also save money in treatment costs and reduce lost school and work days.’
‘It’s precision medicine’