[Cytomics and predictive medicine for oncology]

One hundred and fifty years after Virchow introduced his fundamental concept of cellular pathology, we now have tools that allow us to unravel the mechanisms of single living cells on a previously unprecedented level of detail. By exploring the molecular cellular phenotype, multiparametric cytometry not only detects specific cellular functions in general but also offers insights into the interaction of single subunits of proteins (e.g., growth factor receptors). Several quantitative and objective techniques allow analysis of single-cell preparations as well as tissue sections to obtain data on different cellular parameters. This opens the way to quantitative and objective histology, which in the future may be possible even without blood or the need to make an incision. To use this huge amount of data for treatment decisions in an individual patient, novel bioinformatic concepts are needed in order to predict the individual course of a disease. The concept of cytomics centers on the cell as the integral unit of all life and explores diseases starting from the cell and going to subcellular units (top-down analysis).