Contact: David Opon 312-202-5329 [email protected]
Biochip Technology Opens Door to Tailoring Chemotherapy
SAN FRANCISCO--Patients with infections routinely undergo in-vitro microbiologic cultures and antibiotic sensitivity assays that determine which, of hundreds of antibiotics, will kill the infecting micro-organism most successfully.
"We don't just give the most commonly used antibiotic to a patient; we select a specific antibiotic based on the sensitivity of the organism," Sarkis Meterissian, MD, MSc, FRCS(C), an assistant professor of surgery and oncology at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, explained. The same scenario might be true for patients with cancer in the not-too-distant future.
Researchers at McGill University and other cancer research centers in Canada and the United States are embarking on a field of study that aims to tailor chemotherapy to the genetic makeup of a malignancy. Dr. Meterissian and his colleagues will begin testing a technology that uses a biochip microarray. The biochip microarray enables measurement of hundreds or thousands of genes that have been associated with cancer. The microarray is similar to a matrix with spaces that correspond to specific genes. The RNA from a patient's tumor is placed on the chip and scanned for the presence of one or more of the genes. "When a patient's RNA matches with the DNA of the gene, you know the patient's tumor has that particular gene. You can then look at all the matches and make a table of the genes that were positive for the patient," Dr. Meterissian said.
With information on a wide panel of genes, scientists will be better able to select patients who will respond to specific chemotherapeutic regimens. "Now when patients come in with cancer, we give the best chemotherapy available--not the chemotherapy that may be most effective for an individual patient's tumor. By using the biochip microarray to look at RNA from a patient's tumor, get information on a large number of genes, and correlate that data to the clinical outcome of the patient, we will be able to predict how well a tumor will respond to a single chemotherapeutic agent or combination of chemotherapeutic drugs. The goal is to individualize treatment for the cancer patient," Dr. Meterissian, said.
Previously undiscovered relationships between cancer genes also may be discovered. "Any gene that has been related to cancer can be studied. Even a gene that was never suspected to have an influence on breast cancer can be looked at with this biochip--and all of a sudden--you may find new associations that were never identified before," he added.
###
RSS