ACAAI 2008: The Sunny Side of Genomics in Asthma
Seattle's rain clouds and overcast skies didn't stop presenters from offering a sunny outlook for genomics and personalized medicine in asthma at this morning's breakfast symposium, "Asthma at the Cutting Edge."
Stephen Peters, MD, PhD, kicked off the discussion by talking about some of the goals of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP). The plan is to identify and characterize a large number of subjects with severe asthma and differentiate this group from those with less severe disease. One of its major aims also is to determine whether asthma phenotypes and patient clusters can guide therapy. We'll have to await results, but evolving empiric approaches appear to have great potential, Dr. Peters said.
Wrapping up the talk, Eugene Bleecker, MD, begged the question: "Is Pharmacogenetics the Answer?" It could be ready for prime time now if researchers had unrestricted access to the data in clinical trials, said Dr. Bleecker. He hopes in time that research will be able to explain the differences patients have in their responses to specific pharmacologic therapies based on their genomic makeup. The goal is to optimize treatment for patients because the one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work anymore, he said.
"I think it's the way of the very near future," said Jay Portnoy, MD, president of the ACAAI, in an interview with ADVANCE. "I can see the day when I will have my genome on my iPod." The hope is that clinicians will be able to use that map to identify a patient's risk of having more exacerbations or issues with his asthma, how he responds to treatment, if he has resistance to certain medications like steroids and then tailor treatments and maintenance to the patient's individual needs. "It's like a dream come true," Dr. Portnoy said. "The cutting edge is how it was presented at our meeting this year. In five years, this will be just a standard approach - it's coming really fast."