Could this start to be the end of the stethoscope for example as the first tool of diagnosis...moving rapidly today and not at the pace we have been accustomed to..interesting interactive Diseaseome map here...drag the magnifying glass around and explore...see what is connected and where...easy enough for anyone to explore...BD
“In the not too distant future, we will think about these diseases based on the molecular pathways that are aberrant, rather than the anatomical origin of the tumor,” said Dr. Todd Golub, director of the cancer program at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.
The reclassification may also help find drugs. “There are 40 drugs to treat heart attacks, but none to treat muscular dystrophy,” Dr. Butte said. If the diseases are similar in some molecular pathways, perhaps the heart attack drugs should be tested against muscular dystrophy.
“It gives you a direct connection to what the root causes are,” said Dr. David Altshuler, a professor of medicine and genetics at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, and a researcher at the Broad Institute. “That is different from listening to a stethoscope.”
Still, Dr. Butte said nosology based on genes would one day make today’s classifications look as quaint as ones from 100 years ago look now. One category in the 1909 listing of the causes of death, for instance, was “visitation of God.” “Imagine how they are going to be laughing at us,” he said. “Not 100 years from now, but even 50 or 20 years from now.”
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