Drugs Act Against Core Pathways

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" It is extremely unlikely that drugs which target a single gene like Gleevec

will be active against a major fraction of solid tumors. Instead of screening

for drugs against single proteins, our work suggests that it may be more

productive to screen for drugs that act against core pathways, " Vogelstein said.

The findings also suggest better ways to screen for cancers, Vogelstein said.

" Our group as well as others have found that you can detect mutations outside of

cells, just floating in the plasma, in virtually all patients with advanced

colorectal cancer and about two-thirds of those with relatively early tumors, "

he said. " It will be possible soon to detect them in many other samples from

patients, say in their blood, even when the tumors are early. Almost all tumors

and even those of the brain and pancreas would be curable if they are caught

early. "

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FYI,

Lottie