Advancing the work of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a large team of researchers from multiple institutions performed a comprehensive analysis of molecular data from thousands of patients representing 12 different types of cancer. The analysis pointed to an alternative system for classifying cancer. Instead of defining cancers according to their tissues of origin, the new system considers molecular subtypes.
When the new system is used, as many as 1 in 10 cancers may be reclassified. In these instances, reclassification may be anything but academic. It may, for example, suggest that cancers from a particular tissue may comprise cancers of different subtypes, each with a different prognosis, each vulnerable, possibly, to different therapies.
A new classification system for cancer could also affect drug development or the recruitment of patients into clinical trials.
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Read the full, original story: Genome Study Overhauls Cancer Categories, Shifts from Tissues to Molecular Subtypes
