Studying cancer genomes gene by gene could improve treatment

PRECISION MEDICINE holds that, because people are unique, so too are their diseases. It aims to prescribe treatments tailored to the genetic and biochemical characteristics of individual patients. Achieving this, in the context of oncology, is the purpose of the Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap), which is being developed jointly by the Wellcome Sanger Institute, near Cambridge, in Britain, and the Broad Institute in the city in Massachusetts of that name. Cancer is a good candidate for the application of precision medicine. because it arises when previously well-behaved cells start reproducing uncontrollably, usually as a result of a mutation in their genetic code. Numerous mutations can have this result, so many tailored treatments may be possible. DepMap seeks to find both mutations and treatments.