Things are changing very fast in the means and methods of treatment of the most dreaded disease cancer which has been a killer for years and decades. As you know cancer is a disease of the gene and there are environmental factors such as smoking, radiation or alcohol consumption damaging the DNA and causing cancer. Advanced research in the field of genomics is opening new frontier in cancer treatment. According to John Bell, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences has described the cancer genome projects as the major landmark as significant as the sequencing of the human genome. And if the findings of the research are to be believed these would lead to complete transformation of the way we view cancer.

The scientists working on this project have succeeded in mapping the complete genetic codes of two types of human cancers and the breakthrough achieved thus would revolutionize the treatment of malignant tumour. Thus it would be possible to provide a personalized therapy to a victim based on his genetic profile. Cancers would be diagnosed and treated according to the genetic profile and not their positions in the body. And it has been made possible with the successful cataloguing of every DNA mutation detected in tumours of two victims. This can herald a new era in the medical treatment of cancer and the scientists are hopeful that it would be perfectly possible in another decade to find the genetic defects through analysis and customize a method of treatment which would be most effective.

There are some other exciting possibilities too. The knowledge gained in this process is going to usher in development of new medicined and drugs aiming at curing the DNA errors which are responsible for cancer and formulating ways to ward off this scourge of a disease whose very name strikes terror in the minds of many.