Tens of millions of Americans are living with osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that is the most common form of arthritis, and doctors and researchers are trying to find out more about its origins or how to stop it. Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.

Denisa Rodriguez was diagnosed with osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease, in her right knee during her early 30s. She worries with age it will become progressively worse.

"I was a gymnast, I was bouncing all over the place. Didn't feel it when I was 16 or 17," said Rodriguez. "I just kept on doing it like everyone else. Fast forward, you know 10, 20 years, I'm like 'ouch.'"

The condition also runs in her family. Osteoarthritis is caused by the wearing down of a joint's cartilage. In addition to genetics, other risk factors include age, injury or overuse from sports and weight. While it is the most common form of arthritis, there's still no cure or real treatment to halt disease progression.

Doctors at the Hospital for Joint Diseases at NYU Langone Medical Center in Gramercy, Manhattan have been studying Rodriguez and about 180 other patients to see if they can predict through genetics and biomarkers how severe their condition might become. The idea is that targeted therapies could block the products of genes that could be leading to the arthritis.

"Some genetic markers and some cascades that happen in a molecular, cellular level tell us that there are some processes going on in their blood that we can see," said Dr. Jonathan Samuels of the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. "And these might be things that some scientists could target more easily and go for further therapeutic treatments that we don't have right now."

Doctors say knowing more about who is more likely to see their disease progress will also help a large number of patients avoid unnecessary treatment.

"Many people have osteoarthritis and never really get much worse. Maybe only 10 to 15 percent of people get worse over five years, and yet 30 to 40 million people in this country have osteoarthritis," said Dr. Steve Abramson of the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. "So you would have to treat 85 people to help 15 people with medications."

While it may be a while before any new drug or treatment therapies are developed, NYU's study is expected to wrap up within the year.