A new test could now be able to improve doctors’ ability to recommend the right type of cancer treatment for their patients. According to the researchers, the test, which has been developed by Anil Potti at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy in Durham, North Carolina, is 80% accurate in predicting the right chemotherapy to cure each person’s cancer.
Potti and his colleagues developed the test by analysing the known levels of gene activation in numerous types of cancer cells commonly used in laboratory tests.
A statistical analysis then revealed which patterns of gene activation were associated with the best response to various chemotherapy drugs.
While Potti’s team only analysed samples from patients with leukaemia, breast cancer and ovarian tumours, he said that the tool should work to predict the best drugs for other cancers, too.
“In my mind there’s no reason it shouldn’t be applicable beyond these types,” he said.