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The Prospects for Personalized Medicine
- Hastings Center Report
- The Hastings Center
- Volume 40, Number 5, September-October 2010
- pp. 14-16
- 10.1353/hcr.2010.0002
- Article
- Additional Information
Personalized medicine—the customization of medical treatment to an individual's genetic profile—aims to both improve outcomes and control costs. But recent news, including scandals involving direct-to-consumer genetic tests and questions about targeted cancer therapies, has exposed many ethical hurdles. They are explored here by ethicists, a patient, a medical student, and a consumer advocate.