ABSTRACT
The keyword ‘personalised medicine’ refers to a concept that is supposed to lead to new, improved management options through classification of patients into subgroups, largely by means of ‘novel’ biomarkers. This approach is also called ‘individualised medicine’, or more recently, ‘precision medicine’. The term ‘stratified medicine’ has also been proposed as a neutral and suitable term (Windeler, 2012). However, classification into subgroups (for example, by age, sex or individual characteristics) and subsequent adaptation of patient management have always been components of medical thinking and action (for a detailed discussion on the definition of personalised medicine see Chapter 1, this volume).
