From: ct (tilley314@attbi.com)
Date: Wed Sep 25 2002 - 03:16:43 MDT
At 01:07 AM 9/25/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>A doctor who failed to note the (ancestry) of his patients, for
>example, and use that information to help guide his diagnoses
>and treatment plans is ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Debate Over Race Relations
How does a patient's race influence his response to drugs,
and should these differences be taken into account in
clinical trials? Geneticists have been wrestling with these
politically charged questions for more than a decade. In
the September issue's Paper View, Editor-in-Chief Kevin
Davies discusses a recent paper by Stanford University
geneticist Neil Risch and colleagues, who argue that
identification of genetic differences between racial and
ethnic groups is "scientifically appropriate" and that
"ignoring our differences . . . will ultimately lead to the
disservice of those who are in the minority."
http://www.bio-itworld.com/archive/090902/paperview.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Understanding the pattern of genetic variation within and between
populations is critically important for clinical reasons. The presence of
SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) can exert a profound effect on the
activity of drug-metabolizing enzymes (DMEs), sometimes producing toxic
side effects, other times rendering medications ineffective. These
differences exist, of course, between individuals of the same racial group,
but there may also be significant average differences between different
populations — differences that must be appreciated during clinical trials]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[But in a new commentary published in the July 1 issue of Genome Biology,
Stanford University geneticist Neil Risch and colleagues charge that the
apparent rush to decouple genetic variation with race "does not derive from
an objective scientific perspective." The greatest genetic variation in
humans is seen in the oldest population — Africans — with Caucasians,
Asians, East Asians, and Pacific Islanders forming the four other
classically recognized races. This classification scheme is fully upheld by
genetic studies, which underscores that race must have at least some
biological basis. Races are commonly (albeit imperfectly) distinguished on
the basis of skin pigmentation, which is governed by variations in genes
influencing melanin production. While there is no logic in correlating skin
color and drug metabolism, there is equally no reason to assume that more
relevant genetic variants, in DMEs for example, could not have a racial
distribution.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ct
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:17:16 MST