This cancer research breakthrough could lead to a more personalised treatment for patients afflicted with cancer. It would also raise the chances of sucessful treatments, apart from coming up with new ways to test for cancer.
A NEW breakthrough in cancer research was announced on Thursday, December 17, which could bring about a sea change in the way the disease is treated in the near future. Researchers have finally figured out the entire genetic code of skin and lung cancer, two of the most common types of cancer afflictions in the world.
This breakthrough could lead to a more personalised treatment for patients afflicted with cancer. It would also raise the chances of sucessful treatments, apart from coming up with new ways to test for cancer.The research was led by Professor Mike Stratton, of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge. He said,"By identifying all the cancer genes we will be able to develop new drugs that target the specific mutated genes and work out which patients will benefit from these novel treatments. We can envisage a time when following the removal of a cancer cataloguing it will become routine."
Certain countries engaged in cancer research have over the years, specialised into discerning the causes for certain forms of cancer. Britain is looking at breast cancer, Japan at liver cancer and India at mouth caner. China is studying stomach cancer and the US is looking at cancers of the brain, ovary and pancreas.