Year 2000 in Review:

Milestones in Cancer and Genetics Research

By, Michelle McCullough, BS

The Human Genome Project announced completion of a working draft on June 26th and is now moving to a finished form by filling gaps and increasing overall accuracy. According to the White House, scientists will use the human genome to

Alert patients that they are at risk for certain diseases
Reliably predict the course of disease
Precisely diagnose and treat disease
Develop new treatments at the molecular level.

Cancer Risk Alerts

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that the action of a specific gene in lung tissue cells increases lung cancer risk in smokers. However, the risk was 12 times higher for women and only 2.4 times higher for men. As a result, women smokers are more than twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men smokers. The researchers want women to know that they are much more susceptible to lung cancer from cigarette smoke and may develop the disease with a lesser amount of smoking.

Improvements have also been made in testing genetic susceptibility for cancer. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center have recently discovered a more thorough method in detecting gene mutations for colon cancer by separating chromosomes, a technique known as Conversion.

Predicting the Course of Cancer

Currently, pathologists use tumor location and the appearance of the cells to determine where cancer will spread. The National Human Genome Research Institute now has clues about how malignant melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, spreads to other parts of the body. Melanoma may start as skin cancer, but spreads to other parts of the body, like the lungs or breasts, causing much more damage than if the cancer had begun in those sites. Predicting cancer’s course may allow physicians to prevent its spread and increase chance of survival.

Cancer Treatment

Molecular profiling is drug treatment of cancer tailored to patients’ specific tumor characteristics. It increases response to anti-cancer drugs and chance of survival, and reduces toxic side effects. Recent findings make profiling a greater possibility for patients. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York recently showed that women with ovarian cancer and a BRCA mutation may survive about 2 years longer after receiving chemotherapy in the advance stages than women who do not have the mutation. Researchers speculate that the mutation increases susceptibility to ovarian cancer, but also weakens cells so that they are more receptive to chemotherapy.

Sloan-Kettering recently developed an experimental drug that targets the genetic roots of cancer, specifically destroying tumor cells unlike drugs in the past that killed healthy and cancerous cells. The new drug may help patients for whom standard chemotherapy is ineffective.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center uncovered a genetic alteration that seems to predict how patients with an aggressive brain tumor will respond to chemotherapy. They are now searching for agents to block the gene and increase tumor sensitivity to chemotherapy since the gene alteration allows anticancer drugs to attack the cancer cells unchecked.

Information for this article was taken from Time Magazine, The Associated Press, CNN, Reuters Health, UniSci, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and Journal of the American Medical Association.