Establishing cost-effectiveness of genetic targeting of cancer therapies\ud

The clinical benefit of a new genomic instrument, the 70-gene signature\ud for breast cancer patients, is being evaluated in a randomised clinical\ud trial. The early, controlled implementation process is supported by a\ud Constructive Technology Assessment to help decision-making in an\ud uncertain time of developmen

The promise of microarrays in the management and treatment of breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy afflicting women from Western cultures. Developments in breast cancer molecular and cellular biology research have brought us closer to understanding the genetic basis of this disease. Recent advances in microarray technology hold the promise of further increasing our understanding of the complexity and heterogeneity of this disease, and providing new avenues for the prognostication and prediction of breast cancer outcomes. These new technologies have some limitations and have yet to be incorporated into clinical use, for both the diagnosis and treatment of women with breast cancer. The most recent application of microarray genomic technologies to studying breast cancer is the focus of this review

Microarrays and breast cancer clinical studies: forgetting what we have not yet learnt

This review takes a sceptical view of the impact of breast cancer studies that have used microarrays to identify predictors of clinical outcome. In addition to discussing general pitfalls of microarray experiments, we also critically review the key breast cancer studies to highlight methodological problems in cohort selection, statistical analysis, validation of results and reporting of raw data. We conclude that the optimum use of microarrays in clinical studies requires further optimisation and standardisation of methodology and reporting, together with improvements in clinical study design

Microarrays de DNA en el cáncer oral

Uno de los principales objetivos en la investigación sobre el cáncer en la actualidad es el estudio de marcadores que puedan predecir el pronóstico o la respuesta al tratamiento de forma individual. El número de genes implicados en los distintos pasos de la carcinogénesis oral aumenta a medida que se investiga sobre el tema. Los microarrays de DNA permiten el análisis simultáneo de la expresión de cientos de genes de un tejido en un solo experimento. El formato paralelo del ensayo permite el estudio de diferencias en la expresión genética entre células normales y enfermas, puesto que la actividad de cada gen en el microarray puede ser comparada en dos poblaciones celulares distintas. El objetivo de este trabajo es hacer una breve revisión de los estudios realizados por diversos autores que han intentado identificar genes relacionados con el cáncer oral, así como clasificarlo en subgrupos según los patrones de expresión genética; lo que permitirá una precoz detección, mejor diagnóstico y pronóstico del cáncer oral.One of the principal aims of modern cancer research is to identify markers allowing individual prediction of prognosis or response to treatment. In this connection, the number of genes thought to be involved in the different stages of different types of oral cancer increases apace. DNA microarrays allow simultaneous evaluation of the expression of hundreds of genes in a single assay. The parallel format of microassay slides is designed to allow rapid comparison of gene expression between two samples, for example tumor cells and healthy cells. This article reviews studies that have aimed to identify genes related to oral cancer, and to classify these genes into groups that are commonly co-expressed. These studies suggest that DNA microarrays are set to become routine tools in the detection, diagnosis, characterization and treatment of oral cancers

Identification of Novel Variants of Metadherin in Breast Cancer

Metadherin (MTDH, also known as AEG-1, and Lyric) has been demonstrated to play a potential role in several significant aspects of tumor progression. It has been reported that overexpression of MTDH is associated with progression of disease and poorer prognosis in breast cancer. However, there are no studies to date assessing variants of the MTDH gene and their potential relationship with breast cancer susceptibility. Thus, we investigated all variants of the MTDH gene and explored the association of the variants with breast cancer development. Our cohort consisted of full-length gene sequencing of 108 breast cancer cases and 100 healthy controls; variants were detected in 11 breast cancer cases and 13 controls. Among the variants detected, 9 novel variants were discovered and 2 were found to be associated with the susceptibility of breast cancer. However, additional studies need to be conducted in larger sample sizes to validate these findings and to further investigate whether these variants are prognostic in breast cancer patients