Genetic reconnaissance identifies new colon ca...( nase meaning that these cancers will t...)

The survey method demonstrated by the researchers could have a profound impact on colon cancer treatment strategies, said Vogelstein. "We envision that in the future, there could be tailored cancer therapies. For example, each patient with colon cancer could have a diagnostic analysis to determine which kinases are activated by mutation -- an easy task once you know which ones to look for. Then, that patient could be treated with a drug that specifically targets that kinase."

More broadly, he said, the approach could impact treatment of other types of cancer. "I think it's a perfectly reasonable speculation to suggest that ultimately a great majority of cancers will be found to have at least one drug-targetable mutation, and this could lead to new avenues for individualized therapy," he said.

"Two of the major questions to be addressed by our laboratories are the functional consequences of the mutations we are finding, and whether these kinases are targets for drugs," said Markowitz. "While it's exciting to find a new oncogene in a tumor, the big question is what happens when you turn it off. How big an impact will it have on the behavior of the tumor? Gleevec works so well in chronic myeloid leukemia because it turns off a tyrosine kinase that dramatically reverses the cancer process."

'"/>

Contact: Jim Keeley
keeleyj@hhmi.org
301-215-8858
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
8-May-2003