Scientists and physicians are starting to use data from the “whole genome analysis” of the cancer genome to help them choose the best drugs for their patients.

With the advent of cheap sequencing, researchers can now scour tumors with unprecedented depth. They can compare almost all of the three billion letters of DNA in a patient’s healthy cells and cancer cells and look for differences. Using this approach, researchers have sequenced hundreds of cancer genomes in the last year.

[ Technology Review ]