Individualized drug therapy is especially desirable when the therapeutic index is narrow and the consequences of drug tox-icity are life-tfireatening (eg, antineoplastics, anticoagulants, immune modulators). Many such drugs are administered at maximally tolerated doses. Because these doses are often chosen from population averages, as many as one-third of patients exposed may develop unacceptable toxicity, and a significant proportion of patients will not respond. This increases the risk-benefit ratio for individual patients and imposes a sizeable economic strain on the health care system. An important unanswered question is whether genetics will solve this problem or add further cost to healrfi care with relatively little benefit on outcome.
展开▼
