• Kaisa Litonius, MD, MA

CV

Kaisa Litonius, MD, MA, is a physician specializing in clinical pharmacology at HUS Helsinki University Hospital and a PhD student at the University of Helsinki. She earned her medical degree in 2021 and a Master of Arts degree in 2015, both from the University of Helsinki. Her doctoral research explores the integration of pharmacogenetic panel testing into healthcare, aiming to enhance personalized medicine in everyday clinical practice. Her key research interests include the real-world impact of pharmacogenetics, drawing on large-scale registry and biobank data.

ABSTRACT

Translating Pharmacogenetics into Clinical Practice: Insights from the First 10,000 Patients Genotyped with a 12-Gene Panel
Kaisa Litonius1,2,3, Katriina Tarkiainen1,2,3, Johanna Sistonen1,3,4, Sofia Khan1,3,4, Mikko Niemi1,2,3

1 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

2 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, HUS Diagnostic Center, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

3 Individualized Drug Therapy Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

4 Genome Unit, HUS Diagnostic Center, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

Background and aims
Pharmacogenetic information can improve medication safety and efficacy, and multigene testing strategy enables the reuse of this data in future clinical decisions. The Helsinki University Hospital Diagnostic Center launched a 12-gene next generation sequencing-based pharmacogenetic panel test in January 2022. The aim of the study is to investigate the real-world implementation of pharmacogenetic panel testing
Methods
In this retrospective register-based study, we investigated the utilization of the pharmacogenetic panel test and its impact on gene-drug interactions in Helsinki University Hospital patients.
Results
According to the preliminary results 9,561 Helsinki University Hospital patients have been tested with the pharmacogenetic panel since January 2022. The medical specialties that utilized the panel most frequently were oncology, psychiatry, cardiology, and gastroenterology. Further results will be presented at the congress.
Conclusion
Pharmacogenetic panel testing has been adopted into clinical practice at Helsinki University Hospital, particularly within medical specialties where it can significantly enhance medication safety and therapeutic efficacy.