"Individualized medicine" is a catchphrase currently used to denote efforts in medical research and practice to establish tailored healthcare. The vision of "personalized" medicine has proved to be highly ambivalent reflecting hype and hope: Compared to the great expectations only very few applications have been realized up to now. The contributions to this volume discuss the challenges for patients, doctors and the healthcare system and examine ethical and societal issues arising from one the most promising and most controversial developments in medical science and biotechnology