Canadian researchers make breast cancer breakthrough

The possibility of using a patient’s genetic information to create personalized therapies to battle cancer is one step closer to reality after Canadian scientists decoded, for the first time, the entire genome of a patient’s metastatic breast cancer.

It’s a landmark achievement that is helping to rewrite old notions about the way cancer develops and provides new insights into which drugs could benefit patients the most.

“I’m excited by the possibilities,” said Samuel Aparicio, the head of the department of breast and molecular oncology at the B.C. Cancer Agency and one of the lead scientists involved with the discovery. “In fact, I never thought I would see in my professional lifetime that it would become possible to routinely sequence genomes in the way that we’re now doing.”

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, * International News & Commentary, Canada, Health & Medicine, Science & Technology