Cracking Cancer’s Code

Two interesting articles that shows how the Genome Project has affected cancer research.  The following is just a brief excerpt from the longer articles.

1. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2075133_2075127_2075104,00.html

http://defeatosteosarcoma.org/2011/06/cracking-cancers-code/

Two interesting articles that shows how the Genome Project has affected cancer research.  The following is just a brief excerpt from the longer articles.

1. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2075133_2075127_2075104,00.html

http://defeatosteosarcoma.org/2011/06/cracking-cancers-code/

Eager to put genotyping into practice, doctors at MD Anderson and Massachusetts General Hospital, among others, have already begun using sequencing technology to guide treatment of patients in clinical trials. Even without the full genome map of certain cancers, clinicians are using known mutations linked to cancer to dictate which drugs patients receive. In MD Anderson's program, all lung-cancer patients are offered the chance to join a trial in which their tumors are genetically analyzed for some well-known genetic defects thought to play a role in cancer. About 15% of lung cancers, for example, show mutations in a gene that makes a protein critical for cell growth. Patients with this aberration can enroll in trials in which FDA-approved drugs targeting that mutation are being tested as a first-line therapy, instead of chemotherapy, for treating their disease, giving them a head start in gaining any benefits the drugs might provide. (At the moment, these drugs are approved only for patients with advanced cancer for whom other therapies have failed.)

Cancer experts aren't naive enough to believe that sequencing a tumor just once will reveal all they need to know. Cancer is constantly changing its offensive and defensive plans in response to whatever treatments doctors are using against it. The idea is to rebiopsy patients periodically and allow the dynamic genetic changes in the tumors to educate doctors about how aggressive the cancer is, whether it has developed resistance to drugs and even whether it has spread. "The concept is to let the tumor teach us how to treat patients," says Dr. Waun Ki Hong, head of cancer medicine at MD Anderson.

It's all part of the leap toward personalized cancer care, the therapeutic beacon toward which researchers and doctors have been navigating for a long time. "We fully expect that 10 years from now, each cancer patient is going to want to get a genomic analysis of their cancer and will expect customized therapy based on that information," says Brad Ozenberger, TCGA's program director. Only with more individualized therapies that match the right treatment with the right patient at the right time will the battle ultimately be won.

2.  http://www.sanger.ac.uk/about/press/2009/091216b.html

16th December 2009    Malignant melanoma genome contains 33,000 mutations