Scientists crack genetic code for form of pancreatic cancer
January 21st, 2011 - 5:55 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Jan 21 (ANI): Johns Hopkins researchers have deciphered the genetic code for a type of pancreatic cancer, called neuroendocrine or islet cell tumors.
The work shows that patients whose tumors have certain coding ‘mistakes’ live twice as long as those without them.
“One of the most significant things we learned is that each patient with this kind of rare cancer has a unique genetic code that predicts how aggressive the disease is and how sensitive it is to specific treatments,” said Nickolas Papadopoulos,of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
For the new study, the team investigated non-hormonal pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in 68 men and women. Patients whose tumors had mutations in three genes - MEN-1, DAXX and ATRX - lived at least 10 years after diagnosis, while more than 60 percent of patients whose tumors lacked these mutations died within five years of diagnosis.
The Johns Hopkins team, which previously mapped six other cancer types, used automated tools to create a genetic ‘map’ that provides clues to how tumors develop, grow and spread.
Within the code are individual chemicals called nucleotides, which pair together in a pre-programmed fashion to build DNA and, in turn, a genome. Combinations of these nucleotide letters form genes, which provide instructions that guide cell activity.
Changes in the nucleotide pairs, called mutations, can create coding errors that transform a normal cell into a cancerous one.
The most prevalent mutation, in the MEN-1 gene, occurred in more than 44 percent of all 68 tumors. MEN-1, which has been previously linked to many cancers, creates proteins that regulate how long strands of DNA are twisted and shaped into dense packets that open and close depending on when genes need to be activated.
Two other commonly mutated genes, DAXX and ATRX, which had not previously been linked to cancer, also have epigenetic effects on how DNA is read.
Of the samples studied, mutations in DAXX and ATRX were found in 25 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively.
“To effectively detect and kill cancers, it may be important to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics that take aim at both epigenetic and genetic processes,” said Kenneth Kinzler, of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
The work has been described in Science Express. (ANI)
- Genome code for most common form of pediatric brain cancer cracked - Dec 17, 2010
- Gene that increases pancreatic cancer risk identified - Dec 30, 2011
- New discovery shows promise against pancreatic cancer - Dec 16, 2010
- Personalized cancer medicine now a step closer to reality - Apr 16, 2011
- Scientists complete whole-exome sequencing of skin cancer - Apr 16, 2011
- How two genes promote colon cancer's growth - Aug 07, 2009
- Gene linked to spread of eye melanoma identified - Nov 05, 2010
- Mouse genome offers human cancer clue - Mar 24, 2011
- Compound to starve cancers of sugar-based building blocks found - Nov 19, 2010
- Genetic predisposition for breast, kidney cancers discovered - Dec 23, 2010
- Hidden DNA code more influential than our genes - Sep 19, 2011
- Gene mutations help leukemia drug fight squamous cell lung cancer - Apr 04, 2011
- New technique diagnoses brain cancers non-invasively - Jan 29, 2012
- Genetic change helps lung tumors spread to other parts of the body - Apr 07, 2011
- New personalized therapy to 'fool cancer cells into killing themselves' - Mar 01, 2011
Tags: activity changes, cancer types, coding errors, daxx, genetic code, hopkins researchers, hopkins team, islet cell tumors, jan 21, johns hopkins, kimmel cancer center, mutation, mutations, neuroendocrine tumors, nucleotide pairs, pancreatic cancer, papadopoulos, rare cancer, significant things, strands