Mesothelioma treatments have a new progress research. SANTA FE, N.M. -- The National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) today announced the launch of the first web-based software system specifically designed for analysis of ultra-high throughput DNA sequencing projects. The new software system, Alpheus(TM), will enable researchers to achieve highly scientifically meaningful results from massive DNA sequencing projects. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) announced today that they had employed Alpheus(TM) to discover the unique genetic mutations of cancerous tumors in individual patients. This new approach may dramatically improve therapeutic decisions for cancer patients.
BWH researchers used Alpheus(TM) to analyze the DNA sequences of all genes expressed in tumors from four patients with mesothelioma, an asbestos caused cancer of the lung. Approximately 266 million bases of expressed genes were sequenced per patient in collaboration with 454 Life Sciences, Inc., and analyzed with Alpheus(TM) software. Alpheus(TM) was collaboratively developed with BWH researchers to pipeline ultra-high throughput DNA sequences, enabling comparisons between patients and with reference databases to identify candidate mutations, which were validated by independent methods. In the four mesothelioma tumors 15 novel mutations of multiple types were discovered and each mesothelioma tumor had a unique mutation profile. None of the mutated genes has ever been implicated in mesothelioma. Each tumor had a unique mutation profile, similar to having a unique fingerprint.
The findings confirmed the usefulness of the Alpheus(TM) system to identify patient-specific mutations in massive numbers of DNA sequences from tumor tissues and suggest that this approach could become a new standard for discovery of mutations that underlie cancer. This approach points the way to individualized analysis of patient tumors thereby encouraging discoveries that have tremendous potential to refine individual patient care and guide therapy.
BWH researchers used Alpheus(TM) to analyze the DNA sequences of all genes expressed in tumors from four patients with mesothelioma, an asbestos caused cancer of the lung. Approximately 266 million bases of expressed genes were sequenced per patient in collaboration with 454 Life Sciences, Inc., and analyzed with Alpheus(TM) software. Alpheus(TM) was collaboratively developed with BWH researchers to pipeline ultra-high throughput DNA sequences, enabling comparisons between patients and with reference databases to identify candidate mutations, which were validated by independent methods. In the four mesothelioma tumors 15 novel mutations of multiple types were discovered and each mesothelioma tumor had a unique mutation profile. None of the mutated genes has ever been implicated in mesothelioma. Each tumor had a unique mutation profile, similar to having a unique fingerprint.
The findings confirmed the usefulness of the Alpheus(TM) system to identify patient-specific mutations in massive numbers of DNA sequences from tumor tissues and suggest that this approach could become a new standard for discovery of mutations that underlie cancer. This approach points the way to individualized analysis of patient tumors thereby encouraging discoveries that have tremendous potential to refine individual patient care and guide therapy.
