Can Response to Chemotherapy Be Predicted?

A recent publication explained why patients with the same type of cancer respond differently to identical chemotherapeutic treatments.

Investigators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) established tissue culture lines based on the same types of cells taken from different individuals. They treated these cell lines with the carcinogenic compound MNNG and then determined the amount of genetic damage that had been caused. They reported in the September 19, 2008, online edition of Genes and Development that there was a wide range of sensitivity among cells taken from healthy people. A cell line from one person would be killed dramatically, while that from another person was resistant to exposure.

While this type of response gradient was expected, the results produced a new finding that the response rates of a group of 48 genes could be used to predict susceptibility to the drug with 94% accuracy. "Even if everyone is exposed to exactly the same things, they would respond differently, because we are all genetically different,” said senior author Dr. Leona Samson, professor of biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This study was specific to MNNG, but the investigators are working to predict individuals' responses to other toxic agents, including cisplatin, a common chemotherapy agent, and temozolomide, used to treat brain cancer.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology