ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that effective treatments for a few types of cancer – lung, colorectal, and liver are prominent examples – has been improved by genome-based personalized medicine. It identifies patients likely to participate in clinical trials and to maximize the chances of a successful trial, pharmaceutical companies routinely seek information among racialized and ethnicized populations. The book argues that while ethnic and racial categories emerge as a result of social processes of (self-)othering, in the process of creating, marketing, and regulating genomic medicine, such categories have come to be believed by some scientists to indicate the biological existence of racial and ethnic groups. It focuses on personalized medicine for cancer, the lessons learned could potentially be useful for the development of personalized medicine for other diseases. The book describes the kinds of population categories that matter in population-based genetic studies are context-dependent.
