Gene project would seek keys to cancer

March 31, 2005 | Source: Boston Globe

Federal officials are planning to compile a comprehensive catalog of the genetic abnormalities that characterize cancer, in hopes of discovering important new clues about how to diagnose, prevent, and treat cancer.

The proposed Human Cancer Genome Project would be greater in scale than the Human Genome Project. Its goal: determine the DNA sequence of thousands of tumor samples. Researchers would look for mutations that give rise to cancer or sustain it.