While the incidences of cancer and the deaths due to this complex disease still remain high, novel cancer molecular diagnostics are allowing physicians to more accurately diagnose cancers, identify predisposition and select targeted treatments and personalised medicine for their patients.
This was said by Dr Asim Amjad, radiation oncologist from Alan Blair Cancer Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, during a seminar on "Genetics of Cancers", here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Wednesday. Dr Asim further said that at the molecular level, the problem of how to reduce cancer mortality is approached principally by identification of patients who have a genetic predisposition to develop cancer and detection of genetic changes in body cells that favour degeneration to form cancer cells. He added that a major emphasis in molecular diagnostics is placed upon the expression patterns of genes.
"The challenge is to find the genes active in cancer and separate them from all of the others in a cell", he said adding, and "molecular diagnostics helps scientists identify gene expression patterns that can accurately predict a good response to treatment." Dr Asim hoped that in future, before any treatment is given, doctors may be able to predict a patient's response to chemotherapy or radiation based on this research.
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