Republished with permission from the BC Cancer Foundation

VANCOUVER, B.C. B次元官网网址� BC Cancer scientists, in partnership with the University of British Columbia, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Microsoft have developed a new method for analyzing cancer tissue, allowing them to learn more about cancer than previously possible. Researchers can now read the genomes of single cells within a tumour, opening up a new wave of understanding of how and why cancer develops and changes over time.

This new method is so sensitive that researchers will now be able to analyze single cells from a tissue, and decode their genomes individually. This is a key element to understanding cell evolution B次元官网网址� including how normal, seemingly healthy cells become cancerous and why cancerous cells spread and become resistant to treatment over time. The method will unlock the answers to crucial questions like: the origins of cancer, why cancers evolve, why they become resistant to drugs and why they metastasize. This research will also be a key pathway to cancer prevention, understanding the root environmental causes of the disease.

B次元官网网址淭he ways in which the cells differ from each other turns out to be important for understanding why they stop responding to treatments,B次元官网网址� says Dr. Samuel Aparicio, BC Cancer distinguished scientist and co-lead author on the study with Dr. Sohrab Shah, BC Cancer scientist and current chief of computational oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering. B次元官网网址淚t also tells us something about the history of the cancer; how it developed, how long itB次元官网网址檚 been inside healthy tissue, and how long itB次元官网网址檚 been growing. In some cases, a pattern of mutation in the genome might tell us that that person has been exposed to a carcinogen or some other thing in the environment which predisposes to that cancer. ThatB次元官网网址檚 what the methodology brings - the ability to address all of those questions.B次元官网网址�

The new approach brings together leading-edge methods in genomics and computer science from the laboratories of Dr. Aparicio and Dr. Shah.

This advance comes nearly a decade after Dr. Aparicio and Dr. Shah and their teamB次元官网网址檚 first foundational shift in decoding cancer: the ability to sequence human cancer genomes, which opened up a new era in understanding cancer and has since been transformational in the field.

The team began with two genomes, in a 2009 landmark study of cancer metastasis in a breast cancer and today has decoded more than 500,000 single cell cancer genomes, 50,000 of which are released into the public domain through this study. In the last ten years, cancer genomics findings have sparked new drug treatments, new ways of diagnosing cancer and new ways of monitoring cancer.

B次元官网网址淏asic and translational research is essential to advancing medical discoveries that will have a profound impact on patient care,B次元官网网址� says Dr. Fran莽ois B茅nard, vice president, research, BC Cancer. B次元官网网址淲e are proud of the work our researchers do and the collaboration between partners including the University of British Columbia and Memorial Sloan Kettering.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淎 new era of breakthrough cancer research and treatment is here, thanks in large part to our donors who have supported Dr. Aparicio and his team at BC Cancer for the past decade, bringing hope and promise to patients in B.C.,B次元官网网址� says Sarah Roth, president & CEO, BC Cancer Foundation.

B次元官网网址淪ometimes obtaining the knowledge takes a bit of time and persistence, but thereB次元官网网址檚 a message of hope in here,B次元官网网址� says Dr. Aparicio. B次元官网网址淥ver the next ten years, we anticipate this technology will enable a fundamentally improved understanding of cancer biology leading to better ways to target cancers, predict response to therapy and combine interventions to improve the lives of patients.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e excited to be able to present this technology to other scientists, both at MSK and beyond,B次元官网网址� adds Dr. Shah.

Research teams in the United Kingdom and United States have already begun to adopt the methodology developed at BC Cancer in Vancouver.