First cancer encyclopedia ups hope for new drugs

London: The first “book of cancer knowledge” detailing how hundreds of cancer cells respond to anti-cancer agents has been published, which scientists say will speed up the search for new cancer drugs.
The cancer “encyclopedia” is a step towards tailoring cancer medicine to a patient’s genetic profile.
In the field of cancer research, scientists have so far grown a number of cancer cells in the lab that allowed them to study the effect of new cancer drugs on humans. Now, a team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge and various cancer institutes around the world have released two papers cataloguing data on hundreds of cancer cell lines, the BBC reported.
The team screened more than 600 cancer cell lines with 130 drugs, identifying genetic signatures linked with drug sensitivity. Already clues are emerging that could be of benefit to patients, including the discovery that a rare bone cancer in children.
Mathew Garnett of the Sanger Institute, lead author of one paper, said, “It’s bringing together very large and powerful data sets and asking which cell line is the most sensitive and what is behind that sensitivity.” PTI
Source: Times of India dated 30 March 2012