The emotion and anxiety aroused by a single word \u2013 \u2018cancer\u2019 \u2013 spans ages, sexes, nations, races and classes.
\nBut as we understand more about the disease, the idea that cancer is a single common enemy, is increasingly being challenged.
\nIn late 2009, the publication of the first complete cancer genomes showed the extraordinary chaos present in the DNA inside cancer cells. But they also highlighted the molecular differences between different types of cancer \u2013 in this case, skin cancer and lung cancer
\nOther large gene studies have revealed even more differences between types of cancer, but have also increased out understanding of the differences between the \u2018same\u2019 cancer type in different people \u2013 the foundation of \u2018personalised medicine\u2019.
\nAs this in-depth post on the Respectful Insolence blog describes, they found that no two women\u2019s cancers were alike \u2013 there were differences across all the tumour samples. Even a subcategory like \u2018triple-negative\u2019 breast cancer doesn\u2019t seem to be a single disease. And genetic differences also appeared between cells from the same tumour \u2013 known as \u2018intratumour heterogeneity\u2019.
\nThis point was emphasised a few weeks earlier by researchers at our London Research Institute. They analysed multiple samples from the same patient\u2019s kidney tumour and secondaries (where the cancer had spread to other parts of the body).
\nNo two samples were identical, suggesting that there\u2019s significant variation even inside a tumour. As we discussed in this blog post, it looks like tumours can be highly varied, creating new challenges in the search for personalised medicine.
\nWhich brings us to today\u2019s news, of a landmark Cancer Research UK-funded study.
\nThrough intricate genetic analysis, the same British and Canadian researchers, led by Professor Carlos Caldas from our Cambridge Research Institute and Professor Sam Aparicio from the British Columbia Cancer Centre in Canada, have uncovered crucial new information about breast cancer.
\nTheir study group, METABRIC (Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium), looked at the patterns of molecules inside tumours from nearly two thousand women, for whom information about the tumour characteristics had been meticulously recorded.
\nThey compared this with the women\u2019s survival, and other information, like their age at diagnosis.
\nWhile many other studies have highlighted differences between cancers, the METABRIC study looked at so many tumours that they could spot new patterns and \u2018clusters\u2019 in the data.
\nTheir conclusion is that what we call \u2018breast cancer\u2019 is in fact at least ten different diseases, each with its own molecular fingerprint, and each with different weak spots.
\nThis is simultaneously daunting and heartening \u2013 daunting because each of these diseases will likely need a different strategy to overcome it; and heartening because it opens up multiple new fronts in our efforts to beat breast cancer.\nCancer Reseach UK<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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