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Monday 28 Sep 2015 - 19:17 Makkah mean time-15-12-1436
Photo: CTV News
Ottawa (IINA) – Canadian scientists at the BC Cancer Agency are helping to develop a new way of treating cancer by using a patient's DNA to come up with a customized treatment plan, CTV National News reported on Sunday.
Fighting cancer has long been considered an educated guessing game, where physicians pick a therapy and hope that it helps eradicate a tumor. But doctors at the BC Cancer Agency are developing new techniques to treat cancer using DNA analysis to pick the best drugs for a patient. It's called personalized onco-genomics (POG), and for some patients the results have been promising.
For four years, Leslie LaForest was being treated for her anal cancer using a traditional method. But in March, doctors found out that her cancer had spread. She joined a landmark clinical trial at the BC Cancer Agency.
Doctors at the agency took a biopsy, looking for any genetic mutations in her cancer cells that aren't in her normal cells. They soon discovered that her cancer had a weakness, and found a drug, still in development, that could interfere with her tumor's growth.
LaForest started taking the pills in early July, and nine weeks later, in September, she learned her tumors are shrinking.
The same approach was used on another patient who was suffering from colon cancer. DNA analysis revealed a specific protein was acting as a driving force behind her cancer. She was subsequently put on a blood pressure medication that blocks the protein. Within a few weeks, tests found that her cancer was barely detectable.
Dr Janessa Laskin said the hope for the patients enrolled in the BC Cancer Agency study is that each will have a personalized treatment plan with fewer side effects.
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