By examining genetic changes with kidney cancer as an example, scientists found that some tumors are ‘born bad’, while others have a low risk of spreading and may not require treatment.
‘Badly born’ tumors have extensive mutations and are likely to spread, while mild forms of the disease develop slowly and may require intervention, the study found.
Intermediate tumors are predicted to spread to only one part of the body and respond to surgery.
The groundbreaking study could pave the way for personalized patient care, says Sir Harpal Kumar, executive director of Cancer Research UK. Recognizing the type of cancer can lead to personalized treatments, she adds.
A team at the Francis Crick Institute genetically mapped cancer histories from over a dozen samples taken from different areas of the same tumor. Once you know how closely related tumors are, you can tell how quickly a mutation mutates.
Rapidly developing tumors can grow at a dizzying rate so that they will spread throughout the body before they are even detected. This means that surgery to remove the tumor may delay the use of chemotherapy drugs that slow the disease down.
The study, published in three articles in the journal Cell, describes an analysis of 100 cases of patients diagnosed with kidney cancer.
How serious is kidney cancer?
Kidney cancer is a cancer that occurs relatively frequently. We have 4,5 thousand new cases a year, but unfortunately we are talking about more than 2,5 thousand deaths a year. It is now the seventh most common cancer among men, not much rarer in women. Its detection is quite a challenge. Cancer is most often detected by chance, as it grows in a large body cavity that is not sensually innervated and does not produce any symptoms. A dozen or so years ago, late detection of cancer meant for the patient little chance of survival for the next 5 years, with the advancement of medicine, the situation of patients changed significantly.
Based on: dailymail.co.uk