Complete Genomic Sequencing Of Brain Cancer Cell Line Performed

In what could be a basis for personalized treatments based on an individual cancer sufferer’s unique biological signature, UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have performed the first complete genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell line.

According to this Science Daily article, such personalized treatment could mean more effective, less toxic treatment and an ability to detect cancers or their recurrence earlier.

Another benefit would be the ability to know when to stop treatment; in other words to avoid over treatment which could itself have negative consequences. Oncologists would be able to know, definitively, when they can stop giving chemotherapy because it’s no longer needed or when they have to resume chemotherapy because the cancer has returned.

This is said to be the most thorough sequencing analysis of an individual cancer cell line that has been performed to date. Mutations causing the disease will be able to be identified and it will be possible to tell scar tissue from new cancer cells.