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Research led by UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center members Katherine Hoadley, PhD, research assistant professor in genetics and Chuck Perou, PhD, professor of genetics and pathology, was selected by the American Society of Clinical Oncology for inclusion in Clinical Cancer Advances 2015, the Society’s annual review of progress against cancer and emerging trends in the field. The study, a comprehensive tumor genetic analysis which revealed a new way of classifying cancers, is featured as one of the year’s major achievements in clinical cancer research and care.

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Katherine Hoadley, PhD and Chuck Perou, PhD

Hoadley, Perou and other researchers with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network analyzed more than 3,500 tumors across 12 different tissue types and 6 different data platforms to see how they compared to one another — the largest data set of tumor genomics ever assembled, explained lead author Hoadley. They found that cancers are more likely to be genetically similar based on the type of cell in which the cancer originated and not necessarily the type of tissue in which it originated.

“In some cases, a single cell type makes up the tissue from which the tumor originates,” said Hoadley. “But in other cases, the tissue in which the cancer originates is made up of multiple types of cells that can each give rise to tumors. Understanding the cell in which the cancer originates appears to be very important in determining the subtype of a tumor and, in turn, how that tumor behaves and how it should be treated.”

The study not only revamps traditional ideas of how cancers are diagnosed and treated, but could also have a profound impact on the future landscape of drug development. Hoadley and Perou explain that the development of drugs may now focus on targeting larger groups of cancers with genomic similarities, as opposed to a single tumor type as they are currently developed.

Developed under the guidance of an expert editorial board, Clinical Cancer Advances (CCA) is an independent annual review of the year’s major achievements and emerging trends in clinical cancer research and care. To learn more, read the report at www.cancerprogress.net/CCA.