November 6, 2008
Nature
and World Science
The
genome of the cancerous tissue of an individual patient has
been decoded for the first time, identifying mutated genes with a
likely a role in development of the cancer, researchers say.
The data came from a patient with
acute myeloid leukaemia, a cancer of white blood cells that
affects around 13,000 adults yearly in the United States alone and
kills about a third.
The gene sequencing technique used in the study could be applied to other cancers and aid the design of targeted treatments,
according to the researchers, who reported their findings in this
week’s issue of the research journal Nature.
Cancer, really a group of
diseases rather than one, occurs when genetic mutations cause
cells to become abnormal and start reproducing out of control.
This leads to a sometimes deadly growth of diseased tissue.
The researchers, Elaine Mardis of the Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. and colleagues, sequenced
cancerous and normal tissue from the patient and compared the two
sequences, or full sets of genetic code.
Ten mutated genes were identified, according to Mardis and colleagues. Of these,
they said, two were previously reported to be associated with
the disease; the others probably represent newfound genes involved in the development of the
illness.
“Our study establishes whole genome sequencing as an unbiased
method for discovering cancer initiating mutations in
previously unidentified genes,” the researchers wrote. The
technique may be “the only effective means for discovering all of
the mutations” relevant to the disease process, they added,
noting that some of the mutations “may respond to targeted
therapies.”
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/081106_cancer.htm