What you can expect with precision medicine will depend on why it's being done. Precision medicine for breast cancer is often used to find the treatment that is most likely to help you. It also might be used in the diagnosis and prevention of breast cancer.
Examples of precision medicine for breast cancer include:
Testing your DNA to find the right medicine
The DNA inside your cells gives the cells the instructions they need to do their jobs. Variations in your DNA can affect how your cells work. For example, cells that help your body process medicines might work in different ways, depending on your DNA. Variations in your DNA could make a medicine less effective for you. Or because of the variations, you may be more likely to have certain side effects.
Precision medicine can help your healthcare team select the right medicine for you based on your DNA. Genetic testing to find the right medicine is sometimes called pharmacogenomics.
Testing your cancer cells to find the right medicine
Cancer often starts when healthy cells become cancer cells. The healthy cells develop changes in their DNA that turn them into cancer cells. Tests can look for these changes inside the cancer cells.
Through the use of precision medicine, your healthcare team can select the medicine that likely will be most effective against your cancer cells. Sometimes this type of testing is used to select targeted therapy medicines. This testing is sometimes called tumor sequencing or biomarker testing.
Looking for DNA changes that run in your family
Some DNA changes are passed from parents to children. A number of these DNA changes can increase the risk of breast cancer. The most well-known DNA changes related to breast cancer are BRCA1 and BRCA2. People with these DNA changes have a very high risk of breast cancer and other cancers.
Precision medicine might offer information that your healthcare team can use to create a personalized prevention and screening plan based on the results of your genetic testing. Medicines and operations to lower the risk of cancer might be options for you if you have these DNA changes.