Transomics at St. Jude’s
One thing that’s largely true about medical innovation is that the new is more expensive than the old. Clinical DNA and RNA sequencing illustrate that. In recent work at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, 253 pediatric cancer patients received whole genome, exome and RNA sequencing to better define their tumors. The cost was $8,600 per patient, which could cause medical economists to howl. Yet, in 200 of those patients, sequencing revealed a new diagnosis, a potential drug target, or a prognosis. It even found cancer genes which were not reported elsewhere. What this piece doesn’t say, though, is that sequencing ultimately could discover intersecting pathways of cancer and other co-morbidities which are diseases in their own right. It is a reasonable guess that molecular diagnostics will unravel the Gordian knot of human agonies and open medicine’s next “golden age.” MORE
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