Myeloid leukaemia is a cancer caused in the blood forming cells in the bone marrow.
The doctors basically traced all the genes in the woman’s tumour cells. These were then analyzed against the genes in a normal cell from her skin.
This helped the scientists in determining how a healthy DNA differs from a cancerous one, said author Timothy Ley, a Professor of medicine and genetics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The researchers found that there were ten major genetic changes in the woman’s leukaemia. Out of these, eight genes have been discovered for the very first time.
For the study purposes, scientists also took into account samples from 187 other patients. They were also suffering from the same type of leukaemia. But none of those patients had eight new mutations that were discovered in the tumour of the woman.
Ley said that this only means that similar looking cancers might be genetically very different. He added that a lot more research needs to be done in this sphere.
In future, doctors will be aiming at developing drugs that will block the bad genes.
At present, Ley and his colleagues are mapping the cancer genome of another patient. They are hopeful of mapping ten more soon. But this is a very costly procedure as sequencing a patient’s genes costs them $1.6 million.
FLT-3, a drug that snags the mutations in the woman’s leukaemia cells, has seen limited success. This is because FLT-3 mutation takes place at a much later stage in the cancer process, after a cell becomes abnormal.
Brian Druker, a Professor at the Oregon Health and Science University Knight Cancer Institute, said, “It’s like trying to put out a wildfire after it already covers acres and acres.”
He added that the drugs that block the cancer in its initial stages need to be developed.
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