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In Italy 1,400 people out of a million die of cancer every year. A new in-depth study reveals how little we still know. But Covid …

The more extensive medical research is done on large samples, the more we discover how little we know. DNA analysis of thousands of UK National Health Service (HNS) cancer patients has found a hitherto unexplored "treasure trove" of cancer causes, all by studying the mechanism of mutation and repair that normally occurs in cells.

In the largest study of its kind, a team of scientists led by Professor Serena Nik-Zainal of Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) and the University of Cambridge analyzed the complete genetic makeup or whole genome sequences of more than 12,000 patients suffering from cancer of the HNS.

Due to the large amount of data provided by whole genome sequencing, the researchers were able to detect patterns in the cancer DNA – or " mutational signatures " – that provide clues as to whether a patient has had past exposure to environmental causes of cancer such as smoke or UV light, or has internal, cellular malfunctions. Mutational signatures are nothing more than the "scars" left by the repair of genetic mutations, and the study of the rarer ones allows us to identify the cause.

Many mutational signatures could be traced back to known causes of mutation, such as smoking or ultraviolet rays. But the team was also able to identify 58 new mutational signatures , suggesting that there are additional causes of cancer that we don't fully understand yet . So the causes of cancer could go far beyond those identified so far.

This research was supported by Cancer Research UK and published today in the journal Science. The genomic data was provided by the 100,000 Genomes Project, a clinical research initiative across England to sequence 100,000 whole genomes from around 85,000 rare disease or cancer patients. The very high number of cases examined made it possible to identify these rare mutations that have not yet been identified.

Dr Andrea Degasperi, research associate at Cambridge University and first author, said: “Whole genome sequencing gives us a complete picture of all the mutations that have contributed to each person's cancer. With thousands of cancer mutations, we have unprecedented power to look for commonalities and differences between HNS patients and in doing so, we have discovered 58 new mutational signatures and expanded our knowledge of cancer. "

Why is this research so important? If we know the cause of the underlying tumor mutation we can:

  • identify hitherto unknown risk factors;
  • evaluate very early preventive diagnostic forms;
  • identify specific drugs that source the specific mutation.
  • evaluate specific treatment strategies for each individual tumor.

Currently in Italy 2 people per million die from Covid and 1400 from cancer . If we had committed a fraction of the economic and repressive efforts to the good, that is, to the prevention and treatment of cancer, we also had this type of large-scale scientific research here. But we prefer to shed the obligations of masks and make a fine of 100 euros for fifty-year-olds …


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The article In Italy 1,400 people out of a million die of cancer every year. A new in-depth study reveals how little we still know. But Covid… comes from ScenariEconomici.it .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cancro-una-grande-approfondita-ricerca-svela-quanto-poco-ne-sappiamo-elle-cause-pero-il-covid/ on Fri, 22 Apr 2022 10:00:51 +0000.