Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 28 sepTember 2017

Wanted: 1 million people to study genes, habits and health

By LAURAN NEERGAARD day or bike around town, how to put all that together search. he had months to live. Only
AP Medical Writer if your blood pressure is fine to allow somebody to have And unusual for observa- two studies of that particu-
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a at a check-up but soars on a more precise sense of fu- tional research, volunteers lar cancer had ever been
quest to end cookie-cutter the job, what medications ture risk of illness and what will get receive results of done, on people in their 70s
health care, U.S. research- you take. they might do about it.” their genetic and other and 80s.
ers are getting ready to “They didn’t know anything
recruit more than 1 million about me because they’d
people for an unprece- never seen a 19-year-old
dented study to learn how with this disease,” said Dish-
our genes, environments man.
and lifestyles interact — Yet he survived for two
and to finally customize decades, trying one treat-
ways to prevent and treat ment after another. Then,
disease. as he was running out of
Why does one sibling get options, a chance en-
sick but not another? Why counter with a genetics
does a drug cure one pa- researcher led to mapping
tient but only cause nasty Dishman’s DNA — and the
side effects in the next? stunning discovery that his
Finding out is a tall order. kidney cancer was geneti-
Today, diseases typically cally more like pancreatic
are treated based on what cancer. A pancreatic can-
worked best in short studies cer drug attacked his tu-
of a few hundred or thou- mors so he could get a kid-
sand patients. ney transplant.
“We depend on the aver- “I’m healthier now at 49
age, the one-size-fits-all than I was at 19,” said Dish-
approach because it’s the man. “I was lucky twice
best we’ve got,” said Dr. In this Aug. 7, 2017, photo, Kenneth Parker Ulrich, left, a research technician at the University of over really,” to be offered
Francis Collins, director of Pittsburgh Medical Center, prepares to collect a blood sample from Erricka Hager, a participant an uncommon kind of test-
the National Institutes of in the “All of Us” research program in Pittsburgh. ing and that it found some-
Health. Associated Press thing treatable.
That’s changing: The NIH’s Not to mention differences Pilot testing is under way, tests, information they can Precision medicine is used
massive “All Of Us” project based on age, gender, with more than 2,500 peo- share with their own doc- most widely in cancer, as
will push what’s called pre- race and ethnicity, and so- ple who already have en- tors. more drugs are developed
cision medicine, using traits cioeconomics. rolled and given blood “Anything to get more in- that target tumors with spe-
that make us unique in Layering all that informa- samples. More than 50 formation I can pass on to cific molecular characteris-
learning to forecast health tion in what’s expected to sites around the country my children, I’m all for it,” tics. Beyond cancer, one of
and treat disease. Partly it’s be the largest database of — large medical centers, said Erricka Hager, 29, as the University of Pittsburgh’s
genetics. What genes do its kind could help scientists community health centers she signed up last month at hospitals tests every patient
you harbor that raise your spot patterns, combina- and other providers like the the University of Pittsburgh, receiving a heart stent —
risk of, say, heart disease or tions of factors that drive or San Diego Blood Bank and, the project’s first pilot site. looking for a genetic vari-
Type 2 diabetes or various prevent certain diseases — soon, select Walgreens A usually healthy mother ant that tells if they’ll re-
cancers? and eventually, research- pharmacies — are enrolling of two, she hopes the study spond well to a particular
But other factors affect ers hope, lead to better patients or customers in this can reveal why she experi- blood thinner or will need
that genetic risk: what you care. invitation-only pilot phase. enced high blood pressure an alternative.
eat, how you sleep, if you “The DNA is almost the eas- If the pilot goes well, NIH and gestational diabetes The aim is to expand pre-
grew up in smog or fresh iest part,” Collins said. “It’s plans to open the study during pregnancy. cision medicine. “Why
air, if you sit at a desk all challenging to figure out next spring to just about _____ me?” is the question can-
any U.S. adult who’s inter- Heading the giant All Of cer patients always ask —
ested, with sign-up as easy Us project is a former Intel why they got sick and not
as going online . Corp. executive who brings someone else with similar
It’s a commitment. The a special passion: How to health risks, said Dr. Moun-
study aims to run for at least widen access to the preci- zer Agha, an oncologist at
10 years. sion medicine that saved the University of Pittsburgh
The goal is to enroll a highly his life. Medical Center. “Unfor-
diverse population, people In college, Eric Dishman tunately I don’t have an-
from all walks of life — spe- developed a form of kid- swers for them today,” said
cifically recruiting minorities ney cancer so rare that Agha, who says it will take
who have been under- doctors had no idea how the million-person study to
represented in scientific re- to treat him, and predicted finally get some answers. q