A Cancer Database
Doing my usual lunchtime news round-up and I came across this in the Washington Post -
Federal health officials yesterday launched the biggest genetic research endeavor since the landmark human genome project: an ambitious effort to categorize all of the hundreds of molecular glitches that turn normal healthy cells into cancers.
. . .
By identifying the full spectrum of genetic errors that allow cancer cells to divide recklessly, spread and take root throughout the body, doctors hope to be able to classify every cancer -- not by today's crude measures of where it forms and how fast it is growing, but according to hidden molecular hallmarks that can tell which drugs will work and which ones will not.
. . .
The Cancer Genome Atlas faces formidable challenges, not least of which will be collecting hundreds or thousands of tumor specimens -- each of which must be properly preserved, freely donated for research by patients who have been informed of the project's goals and accompanied by detailed clinical information such as the tumor's response to various drugs.
And the best part?
As the atlas gets filled, its contents are to be placed on a computer database freely accessible to researchers, doctors, patients and the public.
Federal health officials yesterday launched the biggest genetic research endeavor since the landmark human genome project: an ambitious effort to categorize all of the hundreds of molecular glitches that turn normal healthy cells into cancers.
. . .
By identifying the full spectrum of genetic errors that allow cancer cells to divide recklessly, spread and take root throughout the body, doctors hope to be able to classify every cancer -- not by today's crude measures of where it forms and how fast it is growing, but according to hidden molecular hallmarks that can tell which drugs will work and which ones will not.
. . .
The Cancer Genome Atlas faces formidable challenges, not least of which will be collecting hundreds or thousands of tumor specimens -- each of which must be properly preserved, freely donated for research by patients who have been informed of the project's goals and accompanied by detailed clinical information such as the tumor's response to various drugs.
And the best part?
As the atlas gets filled, its contents are to be placed on a computer database freely accessible to researchers, doctors, patients and the public.