TY - JOUR T1 - Introduction to precision medicine in COPD JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.02460-2018 VL - 53 IS - 4 SP - 1802460 AU - Janice M. Leung AU - Ma'en Obeidat AU - Mohsen Sadatsafavi AU - Don D. Sin Y1 - 2019/04/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/53/4/1802460.abstract N2 - Although there has been tremendous growth in our understanding of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its pathophysiology over the past few decades, the pace of therapeutic innovation has been extremely slow. COPD is now widely accepted as a heterogeneous condition with multiple phenotypes and endotypes. Thus, there is a pressing need for COPD care to move from the current “one-size-fits-all” approach to a precision medicine approach that takes into account individual patient variability in genes, environment and lifestyle. Precision medicine is enabled by biomarkers that can: 1) accurately identify subgroups of patients who are most likely to benefit from therapeutics and those who will only experience harm (predictive biomarkers); 2) predict therapeutic responses to drugs at an individual level (response biomarkers); and 3) segregate patients who are at risk of poor outcomes from those who have relatively stable disease (prognostic biomarkers). In this essay, we will discuss the current concept of precision medicine and its relevance for COPD and explore ways to implement precision medicine for millions of patients across the world with COPD.COPD care needs to take into account individual variation in genes, environment and lifestyle. This review outlines the steps required for COPD care to move out of its “one-size-fits-all” approach to precision medicine. http://ow.ly/9UI830nlNb8 ER -