Tumor Heterogeneity and Personalized Medicine
Menée initialement sur un patient atteint d'un cancer métastatique du rein, puis confirmée sur 3 autres patients, cette étude de séquençage des exons analyse les différences génomiques entre diverses régions de la tumeur primitive, d'une part, et entre des régions de la tumeur primitive et des métastases, d'autre part
In the past 10 years, the number of tools available to treat cancer has increased, as has our understanding of what makes some cancers tick. The standard old-time cancer treatments were largely predicated on attacking DNA, an approach fueled by the belief that tumor cells divide more rapidly than normal cells. However, with the notable exception of Burkitt's lymphoma, only a small percentage of tumor cells in a patient are dividing at any given time. As we have learned more about DNA repair mechanisms and epigenetic alterations in cancers, DNA remains a viable target for new cancer therapies, but DNA . . .
New England Journal of Medicine , éditorial, 2011