Cancers are cells that have gone haywire. They're cells that are rapidly multiplying faster than healthy cells, a result of an abnormality in the cells genetic material. The cause could be mutations caused by environmental factors such as cigarette smoke or ultraviolet radiation, some screw-up in replication, or an inherited mutation.
Treatment today is typically a shotgun, trial and error type approach. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation; all with the intent to either crudely cut out or blast away and hope you've killed all the cancerous cells without killing too many healthy cells.
The panacea has always been an individualized approach to therapy. Determine exactly what the cancer cause is and treat that. Based on a Times article, progress in that direction took another step forward:
The first comprehensive genetic maps of human cancers have been created by British scientists, paving the way for a medical revolution in which every tumour will be targeted with personalised therapy.
The exhaustive catalogues, which chart every DNA mutation found in a patient’s tumour, were hailed as a milestone in understanding of the disease that will transform the way it is diagnosed and treated over the next ten years.
Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, which funded the research, said: “This is the first glimpse of the future of cancer medicine, not only in the laboratory, but eventually in the clinic. The findings from today will feed into knowledge, methods and practice in patient care.”
Understanding common mutations will result in the development of more specific, more effective treatments. But the long term goal, now closer as result of this work, is determining exactly the mutations that cause healthy cells to go haywire and, ultimately, prevent them from occurring.
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