Breast Cancer Cell

Anti-cancer chemotherapy originally derived from chemical warfare studies in 1942. Alfred Gilman and Louis Goodman discovered the effect nitrogen mustard had on lymphoic and born marrow tissue, leading to the development of the first anticancer drug, Mustargen. Studies of this drug, like that with others, focused on finding an “average effect” against malignant tumors, which until recently is how new drugs were found, tested, and prescribed. This piece, however, describes how researchers at the University of California-San Francisco used high throughput and automated technology to cross check 625 breast and ovarian cancer genes against every chemotherapy for those cancers. Mapping these gene-drug interactions aims to make chemotherapy more of a rifle shot than a shotgun blast. MORE

Image Credit: UCSF News