Personalized medicine in the choice of conventional immunosuppressants and disease modifying antirheumatic drugs

The decision for a certain therapy for autoimmune diseases is influenced by various factors. These include well-defined arguments, such as approval of the drug for a certain disease, data from studies or registries, age and gender, family planning, risk for infections of the specific patient, side effects, price, data on the importance of genetic polymorphisms for tolerance and effectiveness of the drug or preferences in the way the drug is administered. On the other hand there are less definable factors which influence the choice of a certain drug, such as the mode of action and possibility to combine it with other drugs as well as individual preferences and experiences of patients and rheumatologists. As in the diagnostic procedure of complex rheumatologic diseases the discussion of the differential indications of a drug in the specific situation requires a mosaic-like assembly of many factors and aspects which argue for or against a certain drug in the individual patient, disease and situation. It would be desirable if definable factors were already available which could be recruited as substantial arguments pro or contra a drug in the sense of personalized medicine. This could improve the tolerance and effectiveness of therapeutic strategies. However, as this is not yet the case the authors have tried to assemble ideas which might argue pro or contra conventional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) and immunosuppressive drugs.