Stratified approaches to treating disease are very attractive, as efficacy is maximised by identifying responders using a companion diagnostic or by careful phenotyping. This approach will spare non-responders form potential side-effects. This has been pioneered in oncology where single genes or gene signatures indicate tumours that will respond to specific chemotherapies. Stratified approaches...

Progress in nanotechnology and DNA recombination techniques have produced tools for the diagnosis and investigation of allergy at molecular level. The most advanced examples of such progress are the microarray techniques, which have been expanded not only in research in the field of proteomics but also in application to the clinical setting. Microarrays of allergic components offer results rela...

THE LANCET® is a registered trademark of Elsevier Properties S A, used under licence. International Advisory Board Karen Antman (Boston) Valerie Beral (Oxford) Robert Beaglehole (Auckland) Anthony Costello (London) Robert Fletcher (Boston) Suzanne Fletcher (Boston) Karen Gelmon (Vancouver) David Grimes (Durham) Ana Langer (Mexico City) Judith Lumley (Melbourne) Elizabeth Molyneux (Blantyre) Chr...

The last 20 years has seen rapid advances in genomics, proteomics and other omics technologies, with both the human genome proteome now being at >90% completion high stringency.1 This same period also a paradigm shift medical treatment from traditional ‘one size fits all’ approach, where all patients receive standardised for particular disease, to personalised/precision medicine (PM) approach i...

Abstract Introduction Despite the significant advancements in therapeutic management of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), there is still a pressing need for patient-specific platforms that can predict personalised treatment response. This study aims to optimise cancer tumouroids: 3D vitro models mimic tumour density, and incorporate primary cells isolated from RCC surgical specimens extracellular mat...

Recent discoveries about the pathogenesis and symptom structure of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are challenging traditional nosology and driving efforts to reconceptualise the diagnosis of autism, a goal made all the more pressing by new prospects for early identification, targeted intervention, and personalised-medicine approaches to specific autistic syndromes. Recognition that ASD repres...

E xacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are inflammatory events induced by infection [1]. Therefore, the use of antimicrobial and antiinflammatory medications in exacerbations appears logical. However, the evidence that antibiotics and corticosteroids are beneficial in the treatment of exacerbations is relatively sparse, and only a meta-analytic approach has given us suff...

been developed for screening and for clinical prediction leaves open a temptation to confuse the two, and to misapply them in circumstances for which they were not designed. Tools designed to be used for screening are not necessarily effective in cases of individual decision making. This is not to say that there can never be circumstances in which screening tools are appropriate for individual ...

T he sleep apnoea field is no longer only a matter of nocturnal choking and noise-related partner sleep disturbances. There is now a body of literature demonstrating the huge impact of these nocturnal respiratory disturbances on tissular and systemic inflammatory processes, oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction, as well as imbalance in sympathetic/parasympathetic activities. These factor...