This area of genetic testing includes the analysis of hereditary variability in the organism's response, which is dependent on the use of clinically relevant drugs. The result of the examination is often decisive for the choice of the patient’s treatment in a number of diseases.
Pharmacogenetics or, more precisely, pharmacogenomics, is the study of how differences in our genes affect how drugs act on our bodies and how our bodies respond to those drugs. In this case, genetic predispositions affect the rate of metabolic processing (activation or breakdown) of a drug, its concentration in the blood, the effectiveness of treatment and the risk of side effects.
Differences in the rate of drug metabolism can be significant and drug levels in the body can vary by a factor of 10 just based on genetics. These extremes concern around 10% of people in our population. And such people are the patients for whom the applied treatment does not work at all. Or, conversely, a high rate of side effects leads to discontinuation.