Alliance to Validate Expression for Cancer Classification

A research alliance has been announced to standardize experimental procedures and validate expression data for cancer classification by using gene chip technology to conduct clinical studies. The collaborators are the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research (Cambridge, MA, USA), which will conduct the clinical studies, and Affymetrix, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA, USA), whose GeneChip technology will be used in the studies.

In 1999, Whitehead researchers published evidence that leukemia tumors, appearing virtually identical under a microscope, had different gene expression patterns. Since then, numerous scientists have used GeneChip arrays to classify and predict outcomes of various types of cancer, including brain tumors, breast cancer, lymphoma, prostate cancer, and lung cancer. Standardization will help to ensure that expression array data generated by various laboratories will be comparable in different clinical sites and studies.

Whitehead researchers plan a comprehensive research program to study sample collection from tissue biopsies, amplification, data collection, and analysis to accelerate the use of DNA array technology in clinical settings. They will conduct their work in collaboration with clinical institutions.

"DNA microarrays represent a powerful approach to cancer diagnosis and treatment, demonstrating that it is possible to diagnose cancer based not on the organ of origin or its appearance under the microscope, but on a distinct signature pattern of the genes that are active in that cancer cell,” said Eric S. Lander, Ph.D., director of the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research.





Related Links:
Whitehead Inst. Center for Genome Research
Affymetrix