Treatment for tobacco dependence: a potential application for stratified medicine?

Tobacco addiction is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide and places a heavy social and financial burden on society. Therefore, ways of helping people to overcome nicotine dependence are a key element of strategies aimed at improving public health. Current treatments are only partially effective and there is a need to develop more efficient approaches to help smokers to stop. There exists a substantial genetic variability in smoking behavior and the likelihood of cessation - tailoring treatment according to an individual's genetic profile is now technologically feasible and could lead to more successful cessation attempts. Here we review studies of the genetic effects on smoking cessation in randomized controlled trials of pharmacological therapy and discuss the potential value of a personalized approach to help people stop smoking.