The complete study regarding the four mesothelioma patients discussed in Web-based Software... was published yesterday and featured in the Wall Street Journal. Led by Dr. David Sugarbaker of Brigham and Women's Hospital, the study found that mutations in tumors may help doctors prescribe refined treatment to patients.

In each mesothelioma patient, between two and six genes were mutated in their cancerous tumors. Researchers think these mutations are responsible for the cancer, but no two patients had the same mutations. These differences may account for the varied reactions to chemotherapy: why the treatment works in some but fails in others. Some drug companies produce treatments that target certain mutations. In order to find the right treatment, however, patients would have to submit to costly gene-sequencing techniques and perhaps obtain specially designed drugs.

"It doesn't seem like at this point that it is cost-effective to go down any route that uses this type of data to design drugs," says Jason Bielas, a researcher at the University of Washington. Regardless, Sugarbaker believes this study is a milestone in cancer research. In the future, he says, cancers will no longer be classified under broad terms such as "lung," or "breast," but will instead be recognized by the particular gene mutations.

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