In recent years an innovative model of medicine and health organization has emerged due to technological developments. It is known as personalized medicine and it aims to clarify the genetic basis of diseases and to use this knowledge for the improvement of the diagnostic definition/prognostic of patients. This way, the development of innovative treatments will be based on an individual genomic profile. Humanitas is the first hospital to have formalized in September 2016, a multidisciplinary diagnostic path in hematology coordinated by prof. Matteo Della Porta, Head of the Keukemia and Myelodysplasia Unit of Humanitas. The diagnostic multidisciplinary group will increase the quality of diagnosis and facilitate efficient adaptation of the processes of innovation. All of this is possible thanks to the study of genomic alterations of the individual patient specifications. Finally a team is created with all the professionals involved: specialist hematologist, morphologist, citofluorimetrista, pathologist and molecular biologist.
In what cases is it possible to implement the personalized medicine program?
“The hematological malignancies represent the ideal context for the implementation of personalized medicine programs,” explains the professor. “These diseases have a critical impact on human health and on health planning. Their incidence is also constantly increasing due to the progressive aging of the population. It is estimated that the development of a health model based on personalized medicine may result in an increase in the quality and expectancy of life of the population. Then we will see even greater equity in terms of access to benefits and an increase in the economic sustainability of the health system, as demonstrated by the data of the European Alliance for Personalized Medicine ( www.euapm.eu ) “.
How does the World Health Organization face personalized medicine programs?
The new WHO classification of hematologic diseases of Health (World Health Organization, WHO), published in 2016, incorporates in full the need to steer the system towards a personalized medicine model, defining most of the diseases based on molecular-biological criteria.
We embrace the diagnostic criteria of the new WHO classification of implementing operational paths that integrate clinical multidisciplinary expertise, morphologic, histologic, flow cytometry, cytogenetic and molecular biology.
The new WHO classification has been recognized as one of the priorities in the educational field by the European School of Hematology (ESH). “With regard to my business – explains the professor – I will coordinate the conference ESH Training Course on WHO Classification: Towards Personalized Medicine in Haematology ( www.esh.org ) to be held in Dublin in March 2017″.
“On that occasion – said prof. Della Porta – we will be discussing in the presence of hematologists from all over Europe, the clinical and therapeutic implications of the new classification system”.
