Personalized Precision Medicine: Role of Epigenetic Biomarkers

Epigenetics is the study of heritable phenotype changes that do not entail changes in the DNA sequence. Epigenetic abnormalities have emerged as the most promising biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis in the early stage of illnesses, such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and psychological disorders. A medical model in which people are divided into groups with medical decisions, practices, interventions and products being tailored to the individual patient based on their predicted response or risk of disease is referred as personalized medicine. The terms precision medicine and personalized medicine are utilized interchangeably for describing the concept. Diagnostic testing is used often in personalized medicine to determine suitable and optimal therapies based on a patient's genetic content, or other molecular or cellular analysis. Certain aspects of personalized medicine utilize genetic information, such as pharmacogenomics. With the help of genomics, proteomics and imaging techniques, molecular scale data of the patients is obtained easily. These molecular biomarkers are then used in determining the prognosis of diseases such as cancer. The readers would gain knowledge that would broaden their perspective about personalized precision medicine through this book. Also included herein is a detailed explanation of the role of epigenetic biomarkers. This book will help the readers in keeping pace with the rapid changes in this field of study.