Tumor Tell-All
Unraveling complex genetic stories in cancer cells may lead to personalized treatment
Tumors are ugly. But the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital takes a snapshot of almost every one that crosses the doorstep.
These snapshots are not photographs, but are rather whole rap sheets on the genetic deformities that twist normal cells into cancerous ones. In a laboratory tucked within the labyrinth of corridors connecting the hospital’s many buildings, researchers punch tiny cores no bigger than a grain of rice from tumor samples. Those cores are handed off to robots and tested for 110 mutations that commonly strike 15 genes important in cancer.
Across the country, doctors at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland use another method for testing tumors. The staff there looks for 643 different mutations in 52 genes in solid tumors, such as those of lung and colon cancer, and screens blood or bone marrow from leukemia patients for 370 mutations across 31 genes. Though the tests don’t reveal everything that has gone wrong to lead to a patient’s tumor, they may point to mistakes that drive the cancer. “They’re the original ‘stomp on the gas pedal’ type of mutations,” says Christopher Corless, a pathologist who directs the tests at Oregon.