Cancer Genomics

The Cancer Genomics topic includes research on genetic changes that contribute to cancer, using analysis of the genome (the complete set of DNA) and patterns of gene activity. These changes can affect how cancer develops, grows, and responds to treatment.

Cancer genomic research has revealed that cancers that begin in the same organ can have different genetic features, and cancers in different organs may share some of the same genetic features. This finding has helped explain why some subtypes of tumors in the same organ grow at different rates and why cancer treatments don’t work the same way in every patient. Some new cancer drugs are used to treat tumors with specific genetic or molecular features no matter where in the body the cancer started growing.