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An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. The future of cancer treatment: Whole genome sequencing? We tend to think of everyone with, say, breast cancer as having the same disease.

The future of cancer treatment: Whole genome sequencing?

Which, it turns out, isn't exactly accurate. In reality, certain genes will drive one woman's breast cancer, while other genetic markers will drive another woman's disease. And, genetically, the cancer in one of these women may, in fact, have more in common with, say, lung cancer in another patient or even prostate cancer in a man. Understanding the genetic drivers of cancer could pave the way for new treatments, reports The New York Times, and it has even shown very preliminary promise. Medical experts say that, someday, whole genome sequencing will lead to tailored cancer treatments that attack the specific genetic drivers behind a patient's cancer. How genome sequencing could transform cancer treatment Knowing the genetic makeup of the tumor will help doctors choose drugs to attack the problem genes and stop the cancer. Cancer blood test. People usually find out that they have cancer through screenings or after symptoms start showing – but these sorts of signs often appear only after the cancer has spread so much that it can't be treated.

Cancer blood test

What if you could find out from a simple, highly accurate blood test that you had an incipient tumor? ScienceNOW asks. Researchers from Johns Hopkins have sequenced the abnormal DNA that a tumor releases into the bloodstream, bringing us another step closer to a universal cancer test. Previous research on cells shed into the blood by tumors – as well as free-floating tumor DNA in blood -- have shown: No matter the type of cancer, tumor cells almost invariably have substantially altered chromosomes, such as swapped pieces and extra copies of certain genes. They found that the cancer patients all had DNA with chromosomal alterations in their blood. The method could help track a patient's tumor regrowth or response to treatment. [Via ScienceNOW, Johns Hopkins Medicine] Would you make your DNA and health data public if it may help cure disease?

Jill Davies is Canuck One.

Would you make your DNA and health data public if it may help cure disease?

The 39-year-old Toronto professional is the brave or, perhaps, foolhardy Canadian volunteer who will be first to go public this week in a project that will reveal the coded secrets hidden in her genome, the six billion chemical units of her DNA. They may include not only her susceptibility to diseases such as cancer but the levels of her propensities to alcoholism, depression or obesity, or even personality traits such as risk-taking. She will also provide the personal context required to make sense of the biological data – her age, height, weight; medical records; details about how she lives, works and plays; and even her photo if she’s game.

This information – everything but her name and address – will be placed on an online database that will be open and available to anyone in the world. Ms. Is she out of her mind? Ms. It is a deliberate effort to jump-start what has proved to be the stalled genetic revolution. Ms. Print blood vessel. Gene therapy cures diabetic dogs. Read more: Click here to read the original, longer version of this story FIVE diabetic beagles no longer needed insulin injections after being given two extra genes, with two of them still alive more than four years later.

Gene therapy cures diabetic dogs

"This study is the first to show a long-term cure for diabetes in a large animal using gene therapy," says Fàtima Bosch, who treated the dogs at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. The two genes work together to sense and regulate how much glucose is circulating in the blood. People with type 1 diabetes lose this ability because the pancreatic cells that make insulin, the body's usual sugar-controller, are killed by their immune system. Delivered into muscles in the dogs' legs by a harmless virus, the genes appear to compensate for the loss of these cells. This article appeared in print under the headline "Diabetic dogs cured by gene therapy" New Scientist Not just a website! Share on hootsuiteShare on emailShare on gmail More From New Scientist Promoted Stories. Epilepsy in rats. 12 November 2012Last updated at 12:11 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News Epilepsy can begin at any age Adding "calm down" genes to hyperactive brain cells has completely cured rats of epilepsy for the first time, say UK researchers.

Epilepsy in rats

They believe their approach could help people who cannot control their seizures with drugs. The study, published in the journal Science Translation Medicine, used a virus to insert the new genes into a small number of neurons. About 50 million people have epilepsy worldwide. Genetrainer - Genetically guided fitness. China approves first gene therapy : Article : Nature Biotechnology. Gene-Therapy Approval Marks Milestone. Soon, everybody will be sequenced.

It’s nearly time.

Soon, everybody will be sequenced

The whole human genome -- all 3 billion letters -- can be decoded for $1,000 and in just a few hours. And soon, it’ll actually make sense to include genetic scans in routine medical care. Eliza Strickland reports for IEEE Spectrum.