17 January 2017 - A shift from mass to personalised medicine promises new hope for cancer sufferers and health authorities, improving patients’ quality of life and saving health budgets billions of dollars by averting perilous and ultimately pointless operations.

A proof of concept study has given the tick of approval to “precision medicine”, which harnesses genomic “knowledge banks” to tailor individualised treatments based on the experiences of thousands of earlier patients.

Scientists reanalysed genetic data from more than 1500 leu­kaemia sufferers confronted with a harrowing choice: reduce the risk of relapse with a dangerous stem cell transplant or stick to safer but less effective chemotherapy.

Read The Australian article