Genes Predict Breast Cancer Remission
One of the health benefits of finding new genes is to use that information to see which drug therapy a person responds to the most. For example, some of the newly discovered genes for breast cancer appear to predict a person’s chances of going into remission. (The Scotsman, August 9, 2005)
Researchers first identified 57 genes out of breast tissue samples from five healthy individuals and tumor tissue samples from 56 breast cancer patients - 31 genes were associated with positive response to pre-operative systemic chemotherapy (PST), 27 with poor response. Then, this panel of genes was used to predict the responses of 27 breast cancer patients to PST. The genes were able to accurately predict everyone who went into partial remission and almost 75 percent of people who had complete remission.
Dr Simon Langdon, a cancer researcher at the University of Edinburgh, said,
“Chemotherapy does not work uniformly, sometimes it works better with some patients than others. So, if there is a choice of drug, this could help us to choose which drug for which patient.”
The results of this study are so promising that Dr. Langdon predicts genetic testing will be used in five to ten years to determine each individual’s most effective course of drug therapy.
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POSTED IN: Genetics of Disease
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