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66 CHAPTER 4: Le v er aging Int ernational Collabor ations

CONCLUSION

Given the geographical location of Colombia, different migrations have made
it a country with high admixture and genetically heterogeneous populations,
which has to be taken into account when addressing diseases with a genetic
component. The health care system is slowly introducing genomic medicine
into standard medical care, although disparities in the system, the deficiency in
medical genetics expertise, and technological infrastructure, as well as the lack
of regulation in genetics services and testing, are still the main problem that
prevents adequate development of genomic medicine in the country. Impor-
tant international collaborations have greatly helped the Instituto de Cancer-
ología SA, a comprehensive cancer center in Medellin, to improve systems of
diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients and to encourage clinicians to
develop medical, technical, and scientific expertise in accordance with interna-
tional standards. We hope that other institutions in the country and in Latin
America learn from our experience at the IDC so that access to genetic medi-
cine can be made available throughout the continent. Hopefully, personalized
medicine, comprising genomic tools and the right expertise to treat devastating
diseases such as cancer, will become accessible to most of the population in
the near future.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Instituto de Cancerologia SA, Universidad de Antioquia, and City of Hope for
their support.

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