Now cancer revolution will target leukaemia

THOUSANDS of leukaemia patients will soon get treatments tailored to their disease, thanks to the most detailed cancer gene map ever charted.

The British discovery is the first concrete example of ‘personalised’ cancer treatment heralded in the US – and will allow doctors to pinpoint the correct approach for a patient.

It means thousands of patients will be able to skip chemotherapy if their genes deem it unnecessary. Other patients with deadlier forms of the disease can be fast-tracked to more aggressive treatments.

Scientists at the Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire last night announced they had charted genes of a vicious form of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia.

They found the disease was 11 different disorders, not one, and the different types could be accurately matched to treatments.

The team is already trying to repeat the process for other types of cancer.

Last week, a major study announced in the US estimated that personalised treatment would be six times better at treating cancer – and patients would live twice as long before the cancer grew back. But it relies on scientists knowing which genes control which part of the disease.

The British findings, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, means scientists can precisely pick treatments for the first time.

Dr Peter Campbell, who led the Sanger team, said: ‘You can take two patients who have what look like the same leukaemia under the microscope and apply treatment with exactly the same therapy, and one patient will be cured and one will relapse and die very quickly.’