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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n
Cancer drugs can vary sharply in the genetic damage they cause to healthy blood, scientists have found, in a landmark study that reveals potential new paths to choosing treatments with fewer harmful long-term side effects<\/p>\n
The research suggests DNA analysis could one day be important to identify medicines with a lower risk of causing adverse outcomes such as secondary tumours or organ damage, especially for children.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are constantly on the lookout for better ways of giving therapy and minimising the side effects of toxic, systemic treatments,\u201d said Sir Mike Stratton, co-lead author of the paper and a professor at the UK\u2019s Wellcome Sanger Institute. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that the genomic information from this and future studies will guide choices of chemotherapies, and their adoption in clinical practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The results, published in the journal Nature Genetics on Tuesday, are a pioneering effort to chart the genetic effects of systemic chemotherapy on normal tissues. <\/p>\n
Cancers are caused by cell DNA mutations that can be inherited, triggered by environmental factors or occur at random. The study delves into possible genetic reasons why chemotherapy drugs raise the risk of developing secondary tumours to the one being treated.<\/p>\n
The research team, including members from Cambridge university and its hospitals trust, sequenced blood cell genomes from 23 patients treated with chemotherapies for a range of cancers. They compared the results with those from the blood of nine healthy people who had never received chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
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Many \u2014 but not all \u2014 of the 21 drugs studied caused mutations and premature ageing in healthy blood, the researchers found. One three-year-old patient being treated for a nerve tissue cancer had more mutations then typically found in 80-year-olds who had never received chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
The scientists found big differences in mutational effects in apparently similar chemotherapy drugs, such as those based on the precious metal platinum. While the treatments carboplatin and cisplatin caused very high numbers of mutations, oxaliplatin did not.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s limitations include the small number of participants and its coverage of only certain types of cancers and chemotherapy medicines, the researchers said. <\/p>\n
The work was unable to address some potentially important factors, such as how the body interacted with the drug, they added.<\/p>\n
Systemic chemotherapy remained a \u201ckey way\u201d to combat cancers despite the emergence of new \u201cprecision\u201d therapies, said David Scott, director of the international Cancer Grand Challenges initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudies like this are crucial for helping scientists improve cancer treatments in the future \u2014 making them not only more effective but also safer for people living with cancer,\u201d said Scott, whose organisation funded the work.<\/p>\n
The research raised the prospect of better tailored treatments but other considerations would still be crucial in choosing drugs, said Alena Pance, senior lecturer in genetics at the University of Hertfordshire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe insight into the full consequences of chemotherapy and the characteristics of different agents revealed by this study is a significant step to move towards a more targeted therapeutic approach,\u201d Pance said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost importantly, however, the use of different agents has to be considered in parallel with their efficacy and in the context of the disease, as well as the genomic background of the individual patients.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114777175082751405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}