Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital used high-powered information technology to identify new targets for treating the most common cancer in children.
The discovery not only creates new pathways to treat the disease, pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but also provides a map to find new mutations in adult cancers.
It also illustrates the strength of microarray technology, in which genetic information is converted to data. Supercomputers can then analyze millions of variables, looking for anomalies and patterns. The Hartwell Center at St. Jude is a world leader in the application of computer technology in genetic analysis.
In acute lymphoblastic leukemia, white blood cells fail to mature. Instead, they proliferate and overwhelm other blood cells. The scientists used samples from 242 patients, searching for cell mutations they had in common. In this case they found that 40 percent of the patients had mutations or missing bits on the master genes controlling white cells.
Once a target gene is identified it’s possible to build a drug that will selectively disrupt that gene, breaking the chain of events that culminates in the disease.
A report on this work appears in the March 7 online edition of Nature.
“The results of our study demonstrate that it is possible to significantly speed the identification of the genetic lesions that are the underlying cause of not only ALL, but also many other cancers, including those affecting adults,” said pathologist James Downing, scientific director and chair of the Pathology Department, in a statement. Downing is senior author of the paper.
