Tags:
Journalism of Courage
This week scientists announced that they have successfully mapped the entire genetic codes for two types of cancer. Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Britain have unlocked the genetic code for skin and lung cancers. These developments have predictably inspired a stocktaking of the pace and future uses of human genome research. And at the end of a decade that began with a frenetic race to put in the public domain the human genetic code,they help put in context the great claims made for genetic treatment.
Pioneers like Francis Collins,who led the Human Genome Project and is now director of the US National Institutes of Health,have been emphatic that there could come a tipping point when genetic research into different cancers will start producing benefits. On that timeline,the lung and skin cancer maps are a key milestone. Cancer complications essentially draw from abnormalities in DNA sequences. For instance,scientists have zeroed in on more than 23,000 mutations in the DNA code for lung cancer and 30,000 for melanoma. This sort of sequencing has huge implications for diagnostic and treatment options. Given that early detection can be key for cancer treatment and that current methods of treatment can be very searching,the probable benefits of further research are obvious. The genetic maps also reiterate possible causes of certain cancers; for instance the errors in the lung cancer sequences show a clear correlation to exposure to cigarette smoke. Already,in a matter of days the Sanger Institutes suggestion that a typical smoker develops one mutation per 15 cigarettes smoked has become the most popular statistic floating around. For melanoma,the connection with exposure to the sun has been
reaffirmed. And with the international consortium investigating different cancers in different parts of the world,the research will be valuable in ways of preventing them. In
India they are studying mouth cancers,the rampant incidence of which is only just drawing coherent public health policy on awareness,diagnosis and treatment.
This decade also began with a raging debate on how much of genome research must be in the public domain. These breakthroughs in cancer research are once again a call to cooperation.
