Tumor
tell-all
Unraveling complex
genetic stories in
cancer cells may
lead to personalized
treatment
By Tina Hesman Saey
Tumors are ugly. But the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital takes a snapshot of almost every one that crosses the doorstep.
These snapshots are not photographs,
but are rather whole rap sheets on the
genetic deformities that twist normal
cells into cancerous ones. In a laboratory tucked within the labyrinth of corridors connecting the hospital’s many
buildings, researchers punch tiny cores
no bigger than a grain of rice from tumor
samples. Those cores are handed off to
robots and tested for 110 mutations that
commonly strike 15 genes important
in cancer.
Across the country, doctors at the
Oregon Health & Science University in
Portland use another method for testing tumors. The staff there looks for
643 different mutations in 52 genes in
solid tumors, such as those of lung and
colon cancer, and screens blood or bone
marrow from leukemia patients for
370 mutations across 31 genes. Though
the tests don’t reveal everything that has
gone wrong to lead to a patient’s tumor,
they may point to mistakes that drive the
cancer. “They’re the original ‘stomp on
the gas pedal’ type of mutations,” says
Christopher Corless, a pathologist who
directs the tests at Oregon.
MICHAEL MORGENSTERN
www.sciencenews.org
