A joint work of more than a thousand researchers has allowed to create the most detailed image to date of cancer after analyzing and sequencing about 2,700 complete genomes of samples of 38 types of tumors.
According to researchers from the Pan-Cancer Consortium for the Complete Genome Analysis (Pcawg), cancer was so far like a puzzle of 100,000 pieces of which 99% was missing.
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<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Research results pave the way for creating custom treatments for the specific tumor of each patient, and to design tests to detect cancer much sooner of what is currently detected. “data-reactid =” 36 “> The research results open the way to create custom treatments for the specific tumor of each patient, and to design tests to detect cancer much sooner of what is currently detected.
The other 99%
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While our cells suffer billions of mutations, only a small number of these mutations give rise to cancer.
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The compilation of 22 articles that account for the work coordinated by the Pan-Cancer Consortium for the Analysis of Complete Genomes was published in the prestigious journal Nature.
Most of what we know about cancer genetics comes from studies on genetic instructions to encode our body’s proteins.
This “represents only 1% of the entire genome,” said Lincoln Stein of the Cancer Research Institute of Ontario, Canada, and a member of the consortium behind the research.
Now, after more than a decade of research of scientific teams in 37 countries, it has been possible to determine the role played by the other 99%.
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Key mutations
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“Ultimately, what we want to do is use technologies to identify treatments designed for each patient,” said Peter Campbell of the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
However, in 5% of the tumors analyzed, the scientists failed to find clues to the mutations that caused the disease.
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While our cells suffer billions of mutations, only a small number of these mutations give rise to cancer.
Antiquity
On the other hand, scientists developed a way to determine the age of mutations.
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“We have developed the first chronologies of genetic mutations across the spectrum of cancers,” said Peter Van Loo, co-principal investigator of the Francis Crick Institute in the United Kingdom and co-principal author of the study.
“If we understand these patterns, we could develop new diagnostic tests that would detect cancer much earlier,” adds Van Loo.
The challenge will now be to recognize which of these mutations will lead to cancer, and which are not relevant.
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