Researchers have come up with a new method to find aggressively different tumors that need to be taken care of more rapidly than normal cancer growths — a discovery that may lead the way for novel cures and approaches against such cancers.
The study findings which can be read in the journal Nature Communications revealed that cancer cells usually differ in the number of versions of single gene or chromosome existing in their genome — a process known as copy number alterations or CNAs.
The study also observed that even within the exact same tumor, cells that are from different anatomical parts of the lump may come with various CNAs.
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The researchers comprised a very diverse team including those from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, who said that tumors that hosted CNAs were generally very volatile and evolved more often, even after harsh treatments.
So they created a new method called CUTseq, which can test the quantity and type of CNAs across various parts of the same tumor, at a reasonably cheap cost than the prevalent technologies.
“Multi-region tumor pattern finding is going to be highly used in diagnostic settings. It is essential to know patients with increased heterogeneous tumors that need to be taken care of more aggressively.
It is my opinion that our process is capable of a leading role here,” said Nicola Crosetto, co-author of the study from Karolinska Institute.
Applications of CUTseq go way more than merely being confined to cancer diagnostics, said the researchers behind the new tech.
“For instance, CUTseq is capable of being used as a platform for cell line authentication and to look at and observe genome capability in huge cell line repositories and biobanks,” said Magda Bienko, a senior researcher at the same department.
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“It could also be used in ecology, as the other option to various reduced representation genome patterning methods, like the RAD-seq, to assess biodiversity in a much cheaper way,” Bienko added.
