Two studies published in the April 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggest that cancer survival rates could improve soon with whole-genome sequencing,  according to an editorial by Boris Pasche, M.D., deputy director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of medicine.

Whole-genome sequencing, which maps a person’s DNA and analyzes it for mutations, has enabled cancer therapies to evolve from a standard therapy for all patients with a given type of cancer to a slightly more personalized treatment.

“Whole-genome sequencing gives us the ability to screen a much larger number of tumors and correlate them with the outcome of the patient, so it is very likely that our targeted therapy is going to be exploding in the next decade,” says Pasche. “In patients with breast cancer, colon cancer, and gastric cancer, we now have specific approaches for tumors that exhibit certain genetic abnormalities.

“The current cost to sequence a patient’s entire genome and the genome of their tumor is down more than 100-fold, but still ranges from $30,000 to $40,000. Prices are still dropping very rapidly; in the next 10 years, it will cost less than $10,000, and it certainly will be more affordable in the next five years,”

Half of all men and one-third of all women in the United States will develop cancer during their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society. This new advance could change that, says Pasche.

Ref.: Boris Pasche & Devin Absher, Whole-Genome Sequencing: A Step Closer to Personalized Medicine, JAMA, April 20, 2011