Specific Type Of DNA Likely To Be Target Of Future Cancer Therapies: Yale Study

The researchers have found that people with more aggressive and advanced cancers have a specific type of DNA - ecDNA. It is found more in people who have received treatments for cancer earlier. The new findings can result in making this kind of DNA target for future therapies.

Yale researchers used over 8,000 tumour samples of two types of patients, one whose cancers were recently diagnosed and the other one who earlier received the cancer treatments. They used data available from the Hartwig Medical Foundation, the International Cancer Genomics Consortium, Cancer Genome Atlas, and the Glioma Longitudinal Analysis Consortium.

Yale Study On Cancer Treatment Details

The researchers found that those who were earlier treated with radiation and chemotherapy had higher amounts of ecDNA and this could be a survival advantage for those cancers.

Senior author of the paper, Roel Verhaak, the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine and member of Yale Cancer Center said, “Our research suggests that ecDNA helps tumours become more aggressive. EcDNA has a distinct mechanism and plays an important role, not just for breast or lung cancer, but across many cancer types.”

In advanced cancer, ecDNA is prone to rapid mutations called "hypermutations" and this is expected to be the main reason why cancer becomes difficult to treat as the disease progresses.

“In the lab, we’re using drug libraries to find out what can specifically target ecDNA-containing cells. We want to find vulnerabilities in tumours that have ecDNA, as ecDNA-targeting therapies could benefit as many as a third of all cancer patients," said Verhaak.

Yale Alumnus Wins 2024 Noble Prize In Economics

James A. Robinson, who received a 2024 Noble Prize In Economics, earned his Ph.D. from Yale University.

“The laureates have shown that one explanation for differences in countries’ prosperity is the societal institutions that were introduced during colonization. Inclusive institutions were often introduced in countries that were poor when they were colonized, over time resulting in a generally prosperous population. This is an important reason for why former colonies that were once rich are now poor, and vice versa," the committee said in announcing this year’s recipients.

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