Pharmacogenetic Panel Testing: A Review of Current Practice and Potential for Clinical Implementation

Area of Science:

• Pharmacogenetics and Precision Medicine
• Clinical Pharmacology
• Genomic Medicine

Background:

• Pharmacogenetics (PGx) optimizes drug therapy using individual genetic profiles.
• Current clinical practice includes reactive and pretherapeutic single-gene PGx tests.
• Over 95% of individuals possess actionable PGx variants impacting common medications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the current status of PGx panel testing.
• To explore the potential for clinical implementation of PGx panel testing.
• To evaluate the evidence supporting preemptive PGx testing.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on PGx panel testing.
• Analysis of existing clinical guidelines for PGx testing.
• Discussion of implementation challenges and requirements.

Main Results:

• Pretherapeutic PGx panel testing is supported by available evidence for guideline-covered drugs.
• Actionable PGx variants are prevalent in the general population.
• Drugs affected by PGx variants are widely prescribed.

Conclusions:

• Evidence supports pretherapeutic PGx panel testing for specific drugs.
• Further research is needed to identify optimal patient populations.
• Cost-effectiveness data is crucial for large-scale implementation of PGx panel testing.