Predictive medicine is a branch of medicine that aims to identify patients at risk of developing a disease, thereby enabling either prevention or early treatment of that disease. Either single or more commonly multiple analyses are used to identify markers of future disposition to disease.
Predicting the probability of disease and instituting preventive measures to prevent the disease altogether or significantly decrease its impact, is beneficial to the patient. There are different prediction methodologies, including cytomics, proteomics, and genomics. But the most fundamental way to predict future disease is based on genetics.
Proteomics and cytomics allow for early detection, but they detect biological markers that exist because disease had already started. Comprehensive genetic testing, on the other hand, allows for the estimation of disease risk years to decades before it even exists.
Predictive medicine also applies to certain markers in cancer cells which can predict response to treatment, for eg, patients with oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer are likely to respond to endocrine therapy.