Article
Order of Cancer Gene Mutations Could Influence Treatment Choice
The NEJM study, although specific for blood disorders, could be extrapolated to other tumor types as well, to develop personalized treatment regimens, the authors suggest.
For the first time, researchers have proved that the order in which cancer genes mutate affects the type of malignancy that results and its response to treatment. Although the findings are specific to a particular group of preleukemic disorders known as myeloproliferative neoplasms, they suggest that scientists studying other types of tumors should start taking into account the timing of the underlying genetic mutations as a potentially critical factor in establishing an accurate diagnosis as well as in making choices about treatment. The study, which was conducted by investigators in the U.K., Spain and Germany, was published in the
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Link to the report on Scientific American:
February 11 issueTheNew England Journal of Medicinehttp://bit.ly/1Mgcs71
