Precision Medicine for Obesity Treatment

Obesity is a chronic, heterogeneous, and complex disease associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and health-care costs. By 2030, 1 in 2 people in the United States will have obesity. Lifestyle interventions are the cornerstone of obesity management. However, they often fail to achieve clinically significant weight loss, necessitating additional treatments involving pharmacotherapy or procedures. Advancements in obesity pharmacotherapy have improved weight-loss outcomes and reduced associated comorbidities. Despite these advances, variability in response to treatment between individuals is still considerable. This variability reflects limitations in the current "one-size-fits-all" approach to obesity management. A precision medicine approach aims to address this gap by incorporating genetic, physiological, and behavioral characteristics to guide treatment selection and improve outcomes. Advances in multi-omics technologies, such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiome profiling, offer new opportunities to refine patient stratification and identify novel therapeutic targets. These tools may help move obesity care toward a more individualized and mechanism-based approach.