Editorial: Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation
Oliver Distler, Ralf J. Ludwig, Stefan Niemann, Gabriela Riemekasten, Stefan Schreiber
Abstract
The principle of precision medicine is most established in oncology; e.g. choice of particular treatment based on the presence of certain molecular alterations within the tumors (1). This implementation of precision medicine has significantly improved the prognosis across many malignant diseases (2). Compared to oncology, precision medicine is still in its infancy in chronic inflammatory diseasesexemplified for pemphigus and pemphigoid diseases (Bieber et al.) herein. However, implementation of precision medicine for chronic inflammatory diseases, such as chronic infectious diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory rheumatic diseases and chronic inflammatory diseases of the skin, is expected to have a significant impact of patient well-being (3). There are three key pillars of precision medicine that will enable its implementation into clinical use: (i) identification of unique disease-associated characteristics in individual patients (ii) personalized experimental models of chronic inflammation, and (iii) implementation of personalized treatments. All of these are highlighted in the articles of the Research Topic Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation, and are shortly introduced in this Editorial.