| Scientists find better way to treat stomach cancer | | | | themselves to regulate their growth and death rates. |
| | | | They also found that more than seven in 10 of the |
| SCIENTISTS in Singapore have discovered a more | | | | tumours examined here featured a combination of |
| effective way of treating stomach cancer and | | | | two or three of these pathways, making it |
| boosting the long-term survival rate of patients. | | | | unproductive to predict how the disease will progress |
| They have found that, instead of a "one-size-fits-all" | | | | in any given patient just by classifying them using a |
| method of treatment, they can possibly tailor | | | | single pathway. |
| treatments according to what caused the cancer. | | | | Dr Ooi added: "With the current treatment, patients |
| To do this, they have first come up with a way of | | | | are all treated the same. |
| classifying stomach cancers by the signals the cancer | | | | Some may develop a resistance, resulting in the |
| cells give off when they grow and spread. | | | | tumour not shrinking in size. Survival rate is also not |
| The research that yielded this finding came from a | | | | very good." |
| study of more than 300 gastric tumours in patients | | | | Less than a quarter of patients now make it past |
| from here as well as in Australia and Britain. | | | | five years after surgery and chemotherapy. |
| The findings of the study, to date the largest on | | | | Dr Patrick Tan, the senior author of the study, said |
| cancer genes that produce gastric cancers, were | | | | the findings mean there is potential for designing |
| published online in the peer-reviewed science journal, | | | | personalised treatments for patients. |
| PLoS Genetics. | | | | Dr Ooi said animal trials to validate the findings of this |
| Known as a silent killer, stomach cancer claims more | | | | study will begin soon; it will take another two years |
| than 866,000 lives worldwide every year. | | | | before clinical trials on human patients can begin. |
| The World Health Organisation rates it as second only | | | | But Professor Soo Khee Chee, an oncologist at the |
| to lung cancer among the top killer cancers. Here, | | | | National Cancer Centre, cautioned that it is still early |
| more than 600 people are diagnosed with it every | | | | days, and that the researchers could still find the |
| year, and about 400 die from it in that time. | | | | various sub-classes of stomach cancer may respond |
| It is the fifth killer cancer among men, and the | | | | to surgery and chemotherapy differently. |
| seventh among women. | | | | He called for a study of a larger group of patients, |
| Dr Ooi Chia Huey, a research fellow at the Duke-NUS | | | | which should throw up a clearer picture, so that |
| Graduate Medical School, explained that the team | | | | individualised treatments can be designed for each |
| found three cancer-causing "pathways", or ways in | | | | patient. |
| which cancer cells pass information among | | | | |