2 ms·

Well as a programmer I won't dispute your assertion, but what I heard at a keynote from a very prestigious scientist is that we will actually start targeting th

Well as a programmer I won't dispute your assertion, but what I heard at a keynote from a very prestigious scientist is that we will actually start targeting the patient, not just the specific cancer. He cited some examples where certain known therapies that starve tumors are disastrous in a very small percentage of patients due to certain genetic differences. It was like hearing science fiction. This is certainly a great time to be in this field.

carbocation 16y ago
The scientist and I don't disagree; I think we just have a semantic difference. If the cancer is genetically different from the expectation, then it requires a different treatment. So if you have a disease that looks just like CML but doesn't have a Bcr/Abl fusion tyrosine kinase, imatinib is probably not what we'd want to use. I would call that molecule-centric, and s/he might call it patient-centric. Either way, the wording doesn't matter so long as you're treating the patient with the most appropriate therapy.
- bitdiddle 16y ago
  I see, well I'll certainly take your word for it. I really need to read more of this literature as I've been working with these folks quite a bit, and hardly know the difference between a gene and a protein.
  - carbocation 16y ago
    Are you doing bioinformatics? If so, it's a great excuse to learn more about the field, and learning more about the field will make you care more about the work you're doing--a feed-forward loop. At least, when I started doing medical genetic research, that's how things worked for me.
    - bitdiddle 16y ago
      sort of, I work in description logics, they are used to build medical terminologies. NCI has used them over the years in cancer genomics. A good amount has rubbed off just hanging out with these folks but recently I've become keen to learn more.

2 ms·

Well as a programmer I won't dispute your assertion, but what I heard at a keynote from a very prestigious scientist is that we will actually start targeting th

by bitdiddle 16y ago

carbocation 16y ago
The scientist and I don't disagree; I think we just have a semantic difference. If the cancer is genetically different from the expectation, then it requires a different treatment. So if you have a disease that looks just like CML but doesn't have a Bcr/Abl fusion tyrosine kinase, imatinib is probably not what we'd want to use. I would call that molecule-centric, and s/he might call it patient-centric. Either way, the wording doesn't matter so long as you're treating the patient with the most appropriate therapy.
- bitdiddle 16y ago
  I see, well I'll certainly take your word for it. I really need to read more of this literature as I've been working with these folks quite a bit, and hardly know the difference between a gene and a protein.
  - carbocation 16y ago
    Are you doing bioinformatics? If so, it's a great excuse to learn more about the field, and learning more about the field will make you care more about the work you're doing--a feed-forward loop. At least, when I started doing medical genetic research, that's how things worked for me.
    - bitdiddle 16y ago
      sort of, I work in description logics, they are used to build medical terminologies. NCI has used them over the years in cancer genomics. A good amount has rubbed off just hanging out with these folks but recently I've become keen to learn more.