Precision Medicine for RA
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So we wait that three months. If it is effective, great. if it's not effective, we go on to medication B. And we work down the algorithm, wait for that to be effective. If that's not effective, we go on to the next one. Where we want to be is we want to be able to select a treatment not only based on all the things I just mentioned, but based on specific genetic makeup of that patient or based on specific proteins found in the synovium, which is the joint tissue. We want to identify new biomarkers that would help us really say this particular patient is likely to respond to medication A versus medication B.
So it's going to benefit people who are now taking, maybe, a year to work through medications to get them into remission. We will be able to do it faster, because we will be able to identify where to go in that treatment pathway from the beginning. And we're not there yet, but that's what precision medicine is leading us towards.
KELLY WESELMAN
Precision medicine has been there in rheumatology for some years, but not to the degree we want it to be. There is a lot of room for improvement. So at this point in time, we decide treatments based on the patient's clinical presentation, based on their antibody profile, and, of course, based on their other medical conditions. So what happens is that we start rheumatoid arthritis patients on treatment. And it generally takes three months to know if a medicine is going to be effective. So we wait that three months. If it is effective, great. if it's not effective, we go on to medication B. And we work down the algorithm, wait for that to be effective. If that's not effective, we go on to the next one. Where we want to be is we want to be able to select a treatment not only based on all the things I just mentioned, but based on specific genetic makeup of that patient or based on specific proteins found in the synovium, which is the joint tissue. We want to identify new biomarkers that would help us really say this particular patient is likely to respond to medication A versus medication B.
So it's going to benefit people who are now taking, maybe, a year to work through medications to get them into remission. We will be able to do it faster, because we will be able to identify where to go in that treatment pathway from the beginning. And we're not there yet, but that's what precision medicine is leading us towards.
