A painstaking scan of the DNA of tumor cells shows hundreds of previously unsuspected genes are involved in cancer, researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that offers new ways to fight the disease.
They found more than 1,000 different mutations in just one family of genes taken from 200 samples of breast, stomach, colorectal and other common tumors. Other groups of genes also are involved in cancer.
"We find evidence for approximately 100 new cancer genes," Dr. Mike Stratton, co-leader of the Cancer Genome Project at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, Britain, told reporters.
He said 120 of the mutations in these genes are believed to be "driver" mutations that directly contribute to the development of cancer.
To fully understand cancer, scientists will have to catalog, in detail, every genetic mistake involved in that cancer, they said. "The data presented in this paper provide a rational 'road map' for approaching such a task," they wrote.
Read full story at Yahoo News
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