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New study will use dual approach to find mutations in osteosarcoma
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A new United Kingdom-based osteosarcoma study will use advances in genomic research and analysis to identify genes that give rise to the condition — as well as create personalized blood tests for children and young adults. Results of the study, according to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute press release, may assist physicians in improving osteosarcoma treatment and the creation of improved methods in the measurement of disease regression.
“We hope that this research project will improve the way patients with cancer are monitored and will guide the best drug treatment for the cancer in each patient,” Adrienne Flanagan, MD, PhD, medical director of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, stated in the release.
The new study will will look for tumor-specific DNA in the bloodstream of patients. The complete genome of 50 osteosarcoma patients will be sequenced, and researchers will look through the patients’ plasma before and after chemotherapy treatment to find patient-specific rearrangements in the DNA that leaks from the osteosarcoma into the bloodstream.
Developing a picture of the unique profile of mutations of each patient’s cancer and then using these mutations to monitor the amount of cancer-derived DNA circulating in the blood is what the clinicians hope will enable them to deliver treatments to patients in a personalized fashion. Researchers are also looking for novel genes giving rise to osteosarcoma.
Patients in the study are being treated at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, as well as the University College London Hospital. Research is being performed in collaboration with the University College London Cancer Institute, as well as the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
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