Gene predicts cancer development, BYU study finds

By Celeste Tholen Rosenlof

January 22nd, 2013 @ 8:22pm

PROVO A team of Brigham Young University researchers has identified a gene that could predict a cancer patient's chance of survival.

BYU biology professor David Bearss and co-author of the BYU-University of Iowa study found that a handful of genes in a tumor can predict how the cancer will progress and how patients will respond to therapy throughout the cancer's progression.

Bearss and his colleagues, including a team of BYU undergraduate students, studied 19 multiple myeloma cancer patients by taking biopsied cell samples throughout their cancer treatment and looking at them on the genetic level.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that transforms white blood cells in bone marrow and destroys its function. About 20,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with the disease each year, resulting in about 11,000 deaths, Bearss said.

"We're still not very good at treating it, is the bottom line," he said.

Bearss set out to understand what happens to the cancerous cells at a genetic level throughout treatment. He found that a set of genes or markers consistently and dramatically changed as patients became resistant to therapy. Moreover, they found that one gene called NEK2, is a predictor of poor therapy response in multiple myeloma patients.

That, Bearss said, is a big breakthrough for patients and doctors faced with treatment decisions.

Link:
Gene predicts cancer development, BYU study finds

Comments are closed.