Although a new world of gene-based medicine is many years away, the first wave of DNA-based tests to predict drug response is on the near horizon. "We strongly believe that pharmacogenomics will shortly transform the way drugs are developed, marketed, and prescribed. I think you're going to see the benefits of this appearing within a five-year timeframe," predicts Gerald F. Vovis, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, a New Haven, Conn.-based pharmacogenomics company.
For some patients, the future is already here. Each year, about 2,400 children in the United States are diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer that often can be cured with a combination of drugs that includes 6-mercaptopurine. However, standard doses of this antileukemic agent can cause potentially life-threatening toxicity in about one of every 300 patients, who have an inherited deficiency in thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT), the enzyme that metabolizes 6-mercaptopurine and ...
