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Forsaking cures for cancer: why are we discarding the tumour biospecimens of most patients?
Author(s) -
Gedye Craig,
Fleming Jennifer
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/mja15.00961
Subject(s) - pharmacy , medicine , newcastle upon tyne , library science , cancer medicine , citation , family medicine , classics , art history , cancer , art , computer science
Cancers are highly variable — between different types of cancer, between different patients’ cancers and even between different cancer cells within an individual patient’s cancer. A critical challenge facing cancer research and therapy is to understand and overcome the heterogeneity of each patient’s cancer. Resected tumours and other samples donated by patients with cancer provide invaluable bioresources for the study of cancer heterogeneity. While animal models and in vitro studies generate therapeutic hypotheses, only confirmation in human cancers can ratify targets as relevant to pursue into the clinic