Tumor Complexity Prompts Caution About Sequencing

Extract

In mid-September, the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute announced a $100 million effort to sequence the genomes of lung, brain, and ovarian cancer, the three cancers with the best tissue repositories. It is just the first step in the larger endeavor called the Cancer Genome Atlas, a $1.5 billion attempt to find all the mutations in cancer.

The study was controversial from the outset, with some researchers questioning spending a billion dollars in an uncertain research area. Now new studies have shown that individual tumors are more unique than previously anticipated, which has fueled the controversy again. Supporters of the genome atlas say this unexpected diversity emphasizes the need for mapping cancer genomes to pick out what's important. Critics say that the genome atlas has methodological challenges and are concerned that a big sequencing effort is not the most efficient use of resources in this tight-budget climate.