SONYA PARPART-LIIt is increasingly common practice for researchers to scan DNA sequence data from tumor biopsies of cancer patients—the idea being that the presence of mutations might inform tailored treatments or prognoses. It is not common, however, to sequence these patients’ normal DNA, which, according the authors of a study published today (April 15) in Science Translational Medicine, is a serious omission.
“This paper really emphasizes how important it is to compare an individual patient’s tumor [DNA] to that individual patient’s [normal sequence],” said oncologist George Demetri of Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who was not involved in the study. “It’s not as simple as getting a part of the tumor, genotyping it, and thinking you have the answer.”
“One of the most basic aspects of any scientific approach is to have an analysis and a very good control,” said Victor Velculescu of Johns Hopkins University who led the new study, “and this fundamental rule is being violated essentially by a lot of folks doing this type of analysis.”
Velculescu explained that, historically speaking, there was perhaps good reason for analyzing only the tumor: ...
