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In a study published in Nature , researchers describe nine new genes that drive the development of breast cancer . This takes the tally of all genes associated with breast cancerdevelopment to 40. The team examined all the genes in the genomes of 100 cases ofbreast cancer. The mutated cancer-causing genes were different indifferent cancer samples, indicating that breast cancer is genetically verydiverse. Understanding the consequences of this diversity will beimportant in progressing towards more rational treatment. Changes to DNA lie behind all cases of cancer. Cancer develops as aresult of mutations - called somatic mutations - that are acquiredduring a person's lifetime. Driver mutations, which occur in cancergenes, are a small subset of somatic mutations that drive thedevelopment of cancer. "Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women," explains DrPatrick Tarpey, first author from the Wellcome Trust SangerInstitute. "To identify new cancer genes that lead to thedevelopment of breast cancer, we searched for driver mutations inover 21,000 genes, and found evidence for nine new cancer genesinvolved in the development of this cancer." These genome analyses provide a direct survey of the landscape ofdriver mutations in breast cancer. The team found driver mutationswere present in at least 40 different cancer genes. Most individualcancers had different combinations of mutated cancer genes,demonstrating the substantial genetic diversity in breast cancer. "In 28 cases we found only a single driver, but the maximum numberof driver mutations in an individual cancer was six," saysProfessor Mike Stratton, lead author and Director of the WellcomeTrust Sanger Institute. "We found that breast cancer can be causedby more than 70 different combinations of mutations. "If we consider three breast cancers, each with four drivermutations: they might share none of those driver mutations - soeach is a different genetic 'animal'. They are different cancersdriven by different genes. We need to classify them as carefully aswe can. This study is a step towards that goal." "One of the most striking things about breast cancer is how itprogresses differently in each patient and how each patientresponds differently to therapy," explains Professor Andy Futreal,until recently, Head of Cancer Genomics at the Wellcome TrustSanger Institute and currently an Honorary Faculty Member at theInstitute. "Our results can help us to understand thesedifferences." Our genomes are scarred by decades of continual assault that leavemutations scattered though our DNA. This is the most comprehensivestudy thus far of mutations in breast cancers, discovering nine newmutated genes that cause breast cancer, and revealing the fulldiversity of the driving events that convert normal breast cellsinto breast cancers. "The picture is certainly more complicated than we would havewanted, but as with many other things knowledge is our strongestweapon. These comprehensive insights reveal the faulty wiring ofthe cellular circuit board that causes cells to behave as cancers.Understanding our enemy at this level of detail will allow us totake more rational approaches to therapy, to understand why somecancers respond to drugs and others do not, and direct us to newvulnerabilities to be exploited in new treatments," adds ProfessorStratton. Additional References Citations. I am an expert from custom-printedglassware.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Clear Glass Coffee Mugs , China Art Glass Perfume Bottles, Drinking Glass Cup,and more.
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