Does personalized medicine actually create added value? What has your experience at CPM been so far?
Malek: A little over a year ago, we set up so-called molecular tumor boards. These are interdisciplinary expert meetings where colleagues from molecular biology, human genetics, and bioinformatics, for example, discuss and choose individualized treatments for individual patients. This is done based on the genetic profile of a tumor for example. That being said, we also include immunotherapy, peptide vaccines, and individualized radiotherapy at this point. From my perspective, the new technologies and the interdisciplinary exchange have opened up further treatment options, especially for patients with advanced cancer where we used to be unable to offer any other treatments.
Personalized medicine is most tangible and advanced in oncology because we have many new drugs available in this area that allow a targeted disease intervention. Having said that, we are confident that more and more patients are going to benefit from it in the future. After all, we aim to also set up corresponding structures and decision boards for immune-mediated and neurological disorders in 2018.
What future developments do you see in personalized medicine?
Malek: I believe it will become the defining paradigm of medicine in the future – based on the enormous progress we have made in the diagnostics and targeted treatment of diseases. Obviously, it will not gain a foothold in all areas, when it relates to fractures, heart attacks or pneumonia for example. We are simply too far advanced in these fields and know exactly what we need to do in these cases. However, when it comes to more complex diseases such as age-related diseases, cancers, neurodegenerative or immune-mediated diseases, its principles will be crucial. It will help us to make fundamental treatment advances we were unable to make for many years in these settings.