By exploiting the genetic variation in cancer cells, an already approved cancer drug demonstrated enhanced effects against cancer cells in specific patient groups. This is shown in a recent study from Uppsala University, published in the journal eBiomedicine . The findings suggest a potential for more individually tailored and more effective cancer therapies.
The human genome is organised in 46 chromosomes, where all but the x and y chromosomes in men are present in two copies. This means that a person with a faulty gene on one chromosome most often has a functional version on the other. But during tumour formation, the cancer cells can end up with only the faulty gene.
In cancer cells it is common that larger or smaller parts the chromosomes are lost. If the faulty gene variant is the one that is retained, the cancer cells will lack the protein that was supposed to be produced from this gene. This is called loss of heterozygosity and it creates distinct differences between cancerous and normal cells.
These differences have the potential to inform the development of treatments that specifically target cancer cells." Xiaonan Zhang, researcher at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology and first author of the study In the present study, the researchers analyzed a large number of genes and identified one gene situated in DNA region that is commonly lost in various cancer types. The gene encodes an enzyme in the liver called CYP2D6.
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