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Genetic medicine new cancer killer
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-07-28 08:37
Over the past 50 years, the world has seen tremendous advances in genetic
technology, and it has been called the medical technology of the 21st century.
"The importance of these advances to medicine is analogous to the importance
of microchips to computers," said Andrew Chen, a researcher from the Unites
States' Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, at the 10th International
Symposium of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in the United States, which
was held in Beijing last week.
These advances in genetic technology will increase the understanding of human
genes and their contribution to diseases, Chen said.
Exciting new techniques of genomics are beginning to influence the practice
of medicine, most notably in the diagnosis of various forms of cancer.
"It has become increasingly evident that cancer is a genetic disease
resulting from, or an accumulation of, inherited and environmentally induced
changes or mutations in the genome," said Chen Zhong, a researcher from the
medical genetics division of the Department of Pediatrics with the University of
Utah School of Medicine.
Cancer genetics has, therefore, become a burgeoning area in both genetic
research and practical clinical applications in treating human cancer.
For most cancer patients, at the time of diagnosis the cancer is already at a
very advanced stage.
"Although there is a drug that is quite effective in the early stages of
ovarian cancer, later on, drug resistance develops," said Nancy Wang, a
researcher from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, who is doing research
on ovarian cancer in an attempt to identify the genes associated with the
general progression of the cancer.
Her study suggests that chromosome 11 may carry a tumour suppressor gene and
have a pathogenic role in ovarian cancer.
"By identifying the gene, we can find some particular genetic markers that
may bring about earlier diagnosis," she added.
The gene researchers' interest is not limited to cancer diagnosis; they are
also interested in the role of genetics in treating cardiovascular diseases.
Cardiovascular disease is the worldwide leading cause of death. Like most
chronic diseases, it has major genetic and environmental components.
Some cardiovascular diseases have proven to be the result of a single gene
defect and others relate to more complex aetiologies, or causes, involving
several genes and their interactions.
Understanding the causes of congenital heart diseases from the molecular
genetic perspective requires DNA testing for cardiac disorders, said Qi Ming, a
researcher from the University of Rochester Medical Centre.
According to him, of the 1,055 types of diseases that can be diagnosed using
DNA methods, more than 100 types fall into the category of cardiovascular
diseases.
"Screening mutations in some genes guarantees better diagnosis and management
of patients with congenital heart diseases," said Qi.
Though many patients suffer from cardiovascular diseases nowadays, the
genetic pathological causes may be varied.
"Gene testing makes it possible for patients to receive individualized
treatment based on their specific gene mutation conditions, thus ultimately
decreasing the chances of contracting congenital heart disease and reducing the
number of deaths," said Qi.
Gene testing also has a promising future of application among the healthy.
Genetic defect testing can help doctors evaluate risk factors for healthy
people and give them valuable advice on how to adjust their living habits. This
constitutes a form of early prevention of disease.
"Although it still remains a very challenging field for researchers,
undoubtedly, gene testing is the developing trend in medicine," said Qi.
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