Trevor Flynn
7th hour
12/21/2010
Cracking the Cancer Code
Cancer is always an awful thing to hear, and many of the treatments are hit-and-miss attempts
to cure the person. Only recently has it been discovered why some treatments work on patients with
the same cancer and not on others with the same disease. The reason is that the way of determining a
certain cancer isn't specific enough because the classification is based on size, location, shape and
microscopic appearance. Many cancers actually are completely different beasts but fall under the same
classification based on the usually method of determining the type of cancer. The information for a
more accurate diagnosis actually lies within the genes of the cancer cells.
Traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, etc are unable to treat
ever instance of cancer. Also each cancer has many experimental treatments that can leave the patient's
head spinning with all the options. Without a way to figure out when the cancer will become malignant
or when it will arise, many patients are forced to just sit and wait it out till the cancer starts to spread or
if it doesn't at all. With traditional methods there isn't a recommended screening test for some cancers
such as ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer symptoms can be mistaken for indigestion or bloating and that
causes the detection of the cancer to be sheer luck. Also clinicians for a while have believed that all
small tumors are about the same but analysis proved otherwise. Another problem with traditional
methods is that almost all women get chemotherapy after surgery to prevent the spread of the cancer
but studies showed that about 75% of the patients could do fine without radiation.
Scientist have been searching for a better method of cancer detection and classification.
Recently, molecular profiling has come to the forefront of new methods because of the accuracy of it.
Molecular profiling deciphers thousands of genes to create a molecular profile of types of cancers. It's
important because cancers can look the same under the microscope but actually are completely
different cancers. That can determine how effective treatments will be and if they will work at all. It can
also be used to detect cancers because cancers leave a trail of genes and proteins that can be
determined from blood, urine, and saliva tests. The real question is why wasn't this discovered sooner
than now? It's because only lately has the effective tools become available to scientists to profile each
cancer. The leading technology in this development is the gene chip which is embedded with thousands
of genes. Through analysis, the genes give readouts of the patterns of genes switched on or off in cells to
get a snapshot of the cellular dynamics of the cancer. Molecular profiling then gives scientist a detailed
blueprint of the cancer that can be used to find treatments that will prove effective on the specific
cancer.
Molecular profiling is enormous step towards a 100% effective of detecting and treating cancer.
Traditional treatments are unable to be effective all the time because chemotherapy is more slash and
burn in that it isn't always known if it will be able to stop the cancer from spreading. This causes some
patients to be given treatments that won't work for their particular case such as some lymphoma cancer
patients. They possess a set of genes that prevent some cells from dying off in the usual way. With
molecular profiling, such defects can be detected and then treated appropriately. Hopefully soon, this
new method will lead to new diagnosis techniques and treatments that will take the fear from cancer.
