Convergence in head and neck cancer Baltimore, MD; Boston and
Cambridge MA; Pittsburgh, PA; and Houston, TX . Thurs. July 28,
2011 -- Powerful new technologies that zoom in on the
connections between human genes and diseases have illuminated
the landscape of cancer, singling out changes in tumor DNA that
drive the development of certain types of malignancies such as
melanoma or ovarian cancer. Now several major biomedical centers
have collaborated to shine a light on head and neck squamous
cell cancer. Their large-scale analysis has revealed a
surprising new set of mutations involved in this understudied
disease. In back-to-back papers published online July 28 in
Science, researchers from the Broad Institute, Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the
University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Texas MD
Anderson Cancer Center have confirmed genetic abnormalities
previously suspected in head and neck cancer, including defects
in the tumor suppressor gene known as p53. But the two