An exceptional scientific study has revealed why some cancers are deadlier than others despite appearing identical, reports the BBC, and this discovery will pave the way for more precise therapy determination for each individual patient.
Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute have developed a method for analyzing the development of each individual tumor to predict its future behavior. Research on kidney cancer has shown that in some patients, tumors are more malignant while others never become aggressive and may not require treatment but only monitoring.
“We really do not have the tools to differentiate between cancers that need to be treated and those that need to be monitored,” says scientist Samra Turajlic.
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One cancer can quickly kill a patient while another patient, with what appears to be the same type of cancer, can live for decades after treatment, which represents uncertainty for both the patient and the oncologist.
The study published in the journal Cell analyzed kidney cancer in one hundred patients, and the scientific team conducted genetic research to analyze the history of each cancer, similar to establishing paternity but much more complex. As cancers grow and develop, they mutate increasingly, and different parts of these tumors begin to mutate in different ways. Scientists took numerous samples from various parts of the cancer and then studied how similar those parts were. This allowed them to compile a sort of evolutionary history of each tumor.
“This can also show us which path the tumor will take in its development,” says Turajlic.
Based on the study’s results, scientists categorized kidney cancers into three categories: highly malignant from the start, transitional, and relatively benign.
