Reading Cancers Genetic Signature

by BIG THINK EDITORS

JANUARY 8, 2014, 12:00 AM

"Cancer death rates in the United States continue to decline." Despite

this conclusion, from the recent Report to the Nation on the Status of
Cancer, we are still thought to be losing the war against cancer. Why is
this? For one thing, cancer may soon overtake heart disease as the #1
cause of death.
But this is an unfair comparison, writes George Johnson in The New
York Times. "Heart disease and cancer are primarily diseases of
aging," Johnson observes, adding that we are really talking about a
zero-sum game: "Fewer people succumbing to one means more
people living long enough to die from the other...Though not exactly
consoling, the fact that we have reached this standoff is a kind of
success."
Moreover, in measuring progress in this war, we need to appreciate the
approach that researchers have adopted, of "fighting and even winning
smaller battles," as Johnson puts it. That means reducing and
sometimes preventing cancer that occurs in childhood or in the prime
of someone's life. Eventually, we all will get it, unless something else
gets us first. Cancer, after all, is a condition "deeply ingrained in the
nature of evolution and multicellular life." In other words, cancer
is fundamentally a disease of the genome.

Over the past 10 years we have learned to read out that genome,
explains Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome
Research Institute. Studying the sequence of a tumors DNA allows us
to "gain insights from that tumor with respect to the DNA changes that
have led to those cells becoming a cancer," Green tells Big Think in the
video below.
This is one of the most notable achievements of The Human Genome
Project, Green argues, as the genomes of tumors can be analyzed,
providing "a much better way of deciding what types of treatments to
pursue."
The National Human Genome Research Institute, in partnership
with the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian, has
launched an exhibition called "Genome: Unlocking Lifes Code."
This multimedia exhibitionon view at the National Museum of Natural
History through Sept. 1, 2014is designed to provide the general
public with the most cutting edge information on genomic research and
how it impacts human health.