The natural history of disease is usually a story of progression from an early stage in which homeostasis is only mildly perturbed and easily restored, through a series of increasingly involved stages characterized by a steady increase in the extent and impact of patholog¬ical change. Eventually the disease process becomes irreversible, and treatment is ameliorative at best. One of the major goals of twenty-first century medicine is the identification of biomarkers for the earliest possi¬ble stages of disease involvement so that prompt clini¬cal intervention can limit damage, reverse pathological change, and ideally effect a complete cure.
Revised: October 3, 2005 |
Published: December 31, 2004