Bad (and Good) News on the Cancer Front

A new study in Science shows cancer is much more complicated than previously thought, which is going to make developing treatments after a tumor has spread a greater challenge. Some researchers looked at every gene in pancreatic and brain tumors—two of the hardest-to-treat cancers. Apparently new therapies such as Novartis’ Gleevec target one gene, but cancer is actually caused by dozens of mutated genes (at least 60 in these two types of cancer).

Instead of targeting genetic mutations, they argue a better approach is to try to develop drugs that target common pathways (such as the process by which abnormal cells self-destruct) that are abnormal in tumors (this number was closer to a dozen in the study).

The good news is that they seem to have found that it is possible to detect mutations outside of cells, for example in blood, when tumors are still early in their development leading to a much better prognosis for some patients.