Medical Science Is Making Cancer Breakthroughs

It is amazing, how many new discoveries are found for today's diseases. I write a lot about prevention, but cures give hope. They are our future, the secret to long life, and a better life style.

A new test analyzes some mysterious cancers and may provide a short-cut for treating them. Israel-based Rosetta Genomics (ROSG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said its test, uses microRNAs, a genetic material that regulates genes that are involved in cancer.

Most cancers are named for the place they first develop:breast, lung cancer, or colon cancer. Even if they cancers spread, they are still identified by their primary origin.

"But there is a group of patients who have tumors that appear in a metastatic site which, with the best imaging, you can't find a primary tumor," said Dr. Martin Raber of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

"It either acquired the ability to metastasize so early in development that primary didn't develop. Or the primary never existed," added Raber, who specializes in such cancers and who was not involved in the research.

Identifying the primary origin is the key to treating cancer , said Raber.

"Today we have specific chemotherapies. We have therapies for colon cancer that don't seem to work in other settings," Raber said in a telephone interview. "You can no longer design one regimen that captures all tumors."

"This research demonstrates the tremendous potential of microRNAs as effective biomarkers, and is a significant step towards the development of the first microRNA-based diagnostic tests," said Amir Avniel, president of Rosetta Genomics.

Raber, said eventually such tests will become more refined.

"At the end of the day as a doctor I don't really care if my unknown primary tumor patient had breast cancer, colon cancer or lung cancer," he said.

"All I really care about is what treatment will my patient respond to. Some day we will have gene panels that predict responsiveness to taxanes or ... Erbitux or responsiveness to Avastin," he added. REUTERS