Cancer Gene Tests Should Include Healthy Tissue, Too: Study - Drugs.com MedNews

 Drugs.com MedNews

 
WEDNESDAY April 15, 2015, 2015 -- If genetic tests are only done on cancer tissue, as many as half of patients may not receive the most appropriate treatment for their cancer, a new study reports.
Cancer doctors increasingly rely on genetic testing to look for opportunities to use treatments that target specific genetic causes of cancer -- called targeted therapy.
But doctors often examine just the genetics -- or DNA -- of a patient's cancerous tissue, and don't compare it against a genetic analysis of normal tissue, explained study senior author Dr. Victor Velculescu. He is a professor of oncology and pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and co-director of the school's Cancer Biology Program.....
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