Gaining an edge on the toughest cancers
Margaret Shipp, MD, found that differing gene profiles could help scientists predict which cases of a certain lymphoma would be fatal and which could be cured.
Gene profiling may also be headed for a role in differentiating some brain tumors in children. John Y.H. Kim, MD, PhD, of Pediatric Oncology is an author of a paper recently published in the journal Nature reporting that genetic snapshots helped specialists predict which tumors of a type called medulloblastoma would be the most life-threatening.
"These tumors were poorly distinguished in the past, but now we've shown they have very distinct molecular profiles that let us predict [the tumors' effects] more accurately," says Scott Pomeroy, MD, of Children's Hospital Boston, who led the large research team from several institutions. It's an important step, he says; with precise prediction, doctors can reserve the most potent treatment — which has the worst side effects — for children with the most aggressive tumors.
In prostate cancer, physicians are frustrated by an inability to identify which men who've had their prostate glands removed are more likely to have a recurrence of the disease. Dana-Farber scientists William Sellers, MD, and Phillip Febbo, MD, both of Adult Oncology, are working with Golub to apply gene profiling to this problem, hypothesizing that more-aggressive tumors might have genetic signatures differing from less-aggressive ones.
"These tumors were poorly distinguished in the past, but now we've shown that they have very distinct molecular profiles that let us predict more accurately the outcome."
—; Scott Pomeroy, MD
Golub, the gene-profiling pioneer, cautions that this process isn't yet being used clinically: more experiments in different kinds of cancers are necessary to validate its reliability. And gene profiling will probably be used in combination with conventional methods, he adds. Still, the excitement is palpable.
Chief of Staff Stephen E. Sallan, MD, believes the promise of gene profiling in designing new drugs will be fulfilled before long. "It is clear," he comments, "that this systematic and quantitative approach to identifying genetic targets for novel therapies will soon become the 'gold standard' in cancer research."
