The trouble is, useful gene expression profiles of tumors have been slow in coming. These profiles provide reams of data about what cell types express which genes, and in what quantities, but because the techniques and protocols of cDNA expression are still being perfected, the results generated by different labs usually don't agree with one another, much less correlate to disease outcomes in patients. "Unless you have a diagnosis that changes the management of a patient, it is probably not going to gain widespread acceptance," says Louis M. Staudt, senior investigator, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute.
In these papers, one coauthored by Staudt and the other by Michael Bittner of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), researchers have broken through the barrier and established relationships between gene expression profiling and the biology and clinical outcome of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and cutaneous malignant melanoma, respectively. Bittner's team ...
