Cancer therapeutic target genes identified on chromosome 20q

Medical News 

 The duo conducted a meta-analysis of genes on chromosome 20q that are found to be consistently upregulated across different human tumor types, while collecting gene transcript data of normal and tumor tissues across 11 different tumor types including brain, breast, colon, gastric, head and neck, liver, lung, ovarian, cervix, pancreas, and prostate cancers.

The 18-gene signature is revealed by the study to have robustly elevated levels across human cancers.

"We observed significant association of our signature with disease-free survival in all 18 independent data... These data indicated that our signature is broadly predictive for disease-free survival, independent of tumor type," the researchers said.

 
"In conclusion, our integrative multi-omics analysis of genes on chromosome 20q is paving the way to the development of additional therapeutic targets for cancers with 20q amplifications. This analysis pipeline could furthermore be potentially applied to other tumor amplicons," the researchers hoped.

Article: Multi-omics approach to infer cancer therapeutic targets on chromosome 20q across tumor types, Snijders AM, Mao JH, Advances in Modern Oncology Research

20q
Changes in chromosome 20 have been identified in several types of cancer. These chromosome abnormalities are somatic, which means they are acquired during a person's lifetime and are present only in certain cells. Deletions involving the long (q) arm of chromosome 20 appear to be common in blood-related cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. Deletions of this chromosomal region have also been identified in other disorders of the blood and bone marrow, including polycythemia vera (which causes an overproduction of red blood cells) and myelodysplastic syndrome (which leads to a shortage of healthy blood cells).
Researchers are working to determine which genes on chromosome 20 are disrupted in these conditions. Studies suggest that some genes on the long arm of the chromosome may play critical roles in controlling the growth and division of cells.