Any number of things can go wrong in the cells of the body to
cause cancer -- and clinicians can't tell by just looking at a
tumor what exactly triggered the once normal cells to turn
cancerous. New tests developed by researchers at Duke University
can determine the precise patterns among thousands of genes to
identify the cascade of events, or pathways, that led to the
cancer. These "genomic signatures" will give clinicians the
tools they need to pursue alternatives to the traditional blunt
force of chemotherapy. Following this test, patients might be
treated with drugs that specifically target the faulty pathway,
the researchers said. "Traditional chemotherapy is not always
effective," said Anil Potti, M.D., the study's lead investigator
and an assistant professor of medicine in the Duke Institute for
Genome Sciences & Policy. "Even when we are able to match the
right chemotherapy with the right patient, 70 percent of
patients with lung cancer may not respond to therapy. We need to
take a different approach