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'Dismantling cancer' reveals weak spots
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47886282'Dismantling cancer' reveals weak spots
By James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News
10 April 2019
Scientists have taken cancer apart piece-by-piece to reveal its weaknesses, and come up with new ideas for treatment. A team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute disabled every genetic instruction, one at a time, inside 30 types of cancer. It has thrown up 600 new cancer vulnerabilities and each could be the target of a drug.
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The study heralds the future of personalised cancer medicine. At the moment drugs like chemotherapy cause damage throughout the body.
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Dr Behan told the BBC: "This is so important because currently we treat cancer by treating the entire patient's body. We don't target the cancer cells specifically.
"The information we have uncovered in this study has identified key weak-spots of the cancer cells, and will allow us to develop drugs that target the cancer and leave the healthy tissue undamaged."
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The researchers embarked on a gargantuan feat of disabling each genetic instruction - called a gene - inside cancers, to see which were crucial for survival. They disrupted nearly 20,000 genes in more than 300 lab-grown tumours made from 30 different types of cancer.
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