Cancer treatments will be tailored to patients' genes

[CShine]

Doctors have taken the first steps towards identifying genetic differences between cancer patients so that treatments can be tailored towards a person's genetic make-up. The aim is to separate cancer patients into those who will respond to one particular form of therapy and those who will get better with a different type of treatment. Scientists believe that the personalised treatment of cancer could improve survival rates because the effective- ness of existing drugs and chemotherapy can vary depending on the patient.

The latest research has been carried out by a team led by Mike West, a British-born professor of medical statistics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who analysed the genes of 158 women with breast cancer.

The researchers used "gene chip" technology to investigate simultaneously the activity levels of more than 12,500 genes in breast-tumour biopsies taken from the women and banked between 1991 and 2001.

Using statistical analysis, the scientists discovered patterns of gene activity in the tumours and used them to predict a patient's prognosis, such as the recurrence of the cancer after two or four years of treatment

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=515702