There have been news articles lately claiming that Vitamin D prevents some cancers. Somewhat related to this, I saw an interesting presentation this past week by Jeff Trent, director of
TGen. A 63-year-old woman who had been through 5 different regimes of chemotherapy -- without success -- was brought to the attention of TGen. Through a comprehensive genomic analysis, they identified a defect in a gene related to Vitamin D metabolism in the cancerous tissue. The woman was given megadoses of Vitamin D, and her cancer appeared to stop progressing for a year. After a year, she took a turn for the worse, so they did another genetic analysis, finding another gene defect, for which they identified another pharmaceutical treatment. The information is only anecdotal, but it points to an era where disease treatments will be customized according details of your DNA.
The information is only anecdotal, but it points to an era where disease treatments will be customized according details of your DNA.I'm afraid that as more of all the variants of the human genome are discovered, it's going to become a politically correct mess, just delaying what medical progress and health confering benefits are to be obtained.