By comparing DNA of healthy and cancerous tissue of a single person, there were discovered eight new mutations linked to the disease. The study in Nature

The complete genome of a person suffering from cancer was decoded for the first time. The comparison between the DNA of normal and cancerous tissue of a woman suffering from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has identified ten mutations in the genome of cancer cells, including eight so far unknown, which would be linked to the disease. Researchers of the Washington University School of Medicine (USA), coordinated by Richard K. Wilson, presented their findings in Nature.

Scientists have taken a sample of tissue from normal skin and a tumor tissue from bone marrow to a patient suffering from AML - cancer that affects the bone marrow cells that produce red blood cells. Subsequently they have decoded the DNA of the two tissues, comparing all three billion bases of which the genomes were composed, to go back to differences in disease characteristics of the individual.

There were ten mutations identified, two already known, eight first ever linked to the disease. Of those, three were found in genes that normally can block the growth of tumors (for example in Ptprt, the tyrosine phosphatase gene, often altered in colon cancer). Four changes instead involved genes regulate the molecular pathways that promote tumor development - particularly in a family of genes, usually expressed in embryonic stem cells, which could stimulate cell renewal. A final disturbing deterioration instead of transporting drugs into the cell. According to scientists, these mutations have occurred one after another, each adding something new to the tumor.