Biomarkers: Towards the Dream of Personalized Medicine

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in the early 2000's, genome-wide high-throughput technologies have transformed the biomedical research field. The growing quantity of information produced is collected in specific public repositories and is available for the scientific community, however only few of this "OMICS" information have been transferred to the patient bedside. Among these huge amount of data produced, the most important concern biomarkers. Biomarkers - biological indicators of physiological and pathological conditions, but also of diagnosis, prognosis, prediction and pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention - have become relevant for theranostic applications. Over the last decades, molecular biomarkers provided a dynamic and powerful approach to understanding the whole spectrum of the disease processes: from the discovery stage, where they are used to investigate the pathophysiological mechanisms related to either differential diagnosis or prognosis of a disease, through their progression monitoring and response prediction to the treatment. Their use is revolutionizing the diagnosis and the management of several pathological conditions in different medical fields. Bear in mind the importance of the breast cancer molecular taxonomy for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of affected patients, but also their individual inter-variability to the pharmacological treatment due to single nucleotide polymorphisms.