Ovarian Cancer Breakthrough Pave New Hope For Personalized Cancer Treatment
After a successful research on cancer treatment, a group of doctors and scientists from Vancouver is set to receive international recognition. Their breakthrough discovery paves a positive procedure for the medical community to diagnose and treat cancer.
More than 40 scientists and doctors composed the research team from BC Cancer Agency and Vancouver Coastal Health Institute. The team who collaborated discovered that granulose cell tumours are brought about by genes sharing a single mutation. The said genetic mutation commonly causes ovarian cancer, which is recorded to be rare and untreatable.
The researcher compared the successful breakthrough as similar to finding a needle in a haystack considering the complexities of cancer cells, which are composed of almost three billion genetic codes.
However, result from the breakthrough published in the New England Journal of Medicine promises more application to ovarian cancer cases. As the research team utilizes state-of-the-art technology that led to the discovery of the ovarian cancer’s DNA having a single mutation, this can also be applied to identify other cancer’s genetic sequences.
According to Dr. David Huntsman, a genetic pathologist at the BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver General Hospital and the University of B.C, the team can now decode cancer sequences completely. He said that this achievement was something almost impossible two years ago.
With the discovery, doctors are now able to diagnose individual “recipe” for their cancer patients. Huntsman posits to the idea since the opportunity for the medical community to identify genetic sequences of certain cancers effectively established the route to personalized treatment for individual patient. He further stated that people should recognize that cancer patients have different reactions not only to their diseases but also their response and adaptation to treatments.