Drugmakers use genes to make custom cancer medicines
Cancer is different for everybody. It’s not just the struggle; the disease itself is personalized—imprinted differently in every patient’s genes.
That’s why 13 drugmakers in Japan and the US formed Scrum-Japan, a genomic project that gives specific, targeted cures for cancer patients.
A genome is a complete set of genetic information. The project uses genomes to figure out which treatment would work best for a specific patient.
The project took genome samples from 400 patients with different types of cancers. Their genomes are screened free-of-charge to determine which cancer-fighting agent will help the most. Scrum-Japan hopes to reach 4,500 people by 2017.
Conventional cancer treatment usually involves surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The genome approach attacks only malignant cells, unlike chemotherapy that kill even healthy cells.
Scrum-Japan’s aim is to develop treatments that target cancer-causing genes. The project will focus on about 150 genes to study their links to the cancer, says Dr. Koichi Goto of the National Cancer Center,
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
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