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news.Researchers from the Harvard-MIT division of health sciences and technology have reported that a genetic profile indicating chromosomal instability - an increased tendency to develop chromosomal aberrations, critical in cancer development - is predictive of clinical outcome in a broad range of cancer types.
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Using data on gene expression (activity) from 18 previous studies of cancer, representing six cancer types, they found that this genetic profile, or signature, predicted poor clinical outcome in 12 of the populations studied. The study was published online by the journal Nature Genetics.
“Chromosomal instability is one of the key mechanisms that keeps malignant cell proliferation going,” says Dr Zoltan Szallasi, the study’s senior investigator. “We have achieved a relatively easy way to measure the level of chromosomal instability in a given tumor sample.”
Dr Szallasi further noted that the technique may help in the search for cancer drugs that reduce chromosomal instability, an approach of increasing interest to researchers, by making it possible to screen a large number of drugs for efficacy.
With further development, the team’s work could also form the basis of a diagnostic tool that could be used in the clinic.