Immunological Biomarkers for Patient Stratification

Stratified medicine (SM), aims to "provide patients with the right treatment, for the right person, at the right time" relying on the ability to classify patients into groups according to individual characteristics such as genetic, molecular, and cellular biomarkers. SM is recognized as a high-priority goal for health care providers, pharmaceutical industries, and patients. In this chapter, we will concentrate on immunological biomarkers detected/quantified by several methodologies that have the potential to be used in SM. The road to biomarker development (diagnosis, prognosis, or stratification) is however, a long and winding one, the most difficult hurdle being the need for pooling together the necessary resources to reach appropriate conclusions and translate research findings into clinical practice. However, there are successful examples of translation of novel technologies into clinical use that provide strong rationale for the use of similar approaches in all medical disciplines.