If
you haven’t read it, here’s a link to article by Benedict Carey in the NY Times reporting on progress in
prescribing more individualized brain
cancer treatment based on genetic characteristics of the victims.
Carey
writes that “Doctors can more effectively treat many brain tumors by first
ascertaining their genetic characteristics, rather than studying tissue samples
under a microscope, the standard practice, two teams of researchers reported on
Wednesday.”
He
goes on to note that: “Prognosis is going to be more accurately delineated by
these kinds of genetic subtypes, outstripping the value of looking through a
microscope,” said Dr. David J. Langer, the chief of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill
Hospital in New York, who was not involved in the research.
His
article refers to some new studies — one coordinated by the National Institutes
of Health, the other led by the Mayo Clinic and the University of California,
San Francisco — in which “…research teams performed multiple genetic analyses
on 1,380 tumors. Both teams found that the tumors could be grouped into a few
categories, which could be determined by looking at a handful of genetic
glitches.”
Here’s
the part that make me think we’re making progress: “Tumors with one genetic
profile, for instance, were relatively slow growers and responsive to drug
treatment, making them good candidates for chemotherapy alone, rather than
combined with radiation. Tumors in another category grew relatively slowly but
were not as responsive to drugs, suggesting that combined therapy was best.”
Aha!
This new information is insightful and
pragmatic. Doctors can start helping victims right away.
Here’s a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/health/brain-tumors-genetic-makeup-critical-in-treatment-research-finds.html?_r=0
