Treating Cancer Based On Its Genome
The cost of gene sequencing has gone down at an incredible rate and will only continue. A new approach by doctors is to sequence the genes in a patients’ individual cancerous tumor. Within the past couple of years scientists have sequenced the first cancer genome, and now physicians are using “whole genome analysis” to better treat their patients.
With new tools available the DNA in patients’ healthy cells and cancerous cells can be compared for differences. This ability will allow physicians to offer more personalized drugs and therapies to individual patients with particular types of cancer.
