UNAM
Revista Digital Universitaria
Revista Digital Universitaria ISSN: 1607 - 6079 | Publicación mensual | 1 de junio de 2014 vol.15, No.06

ABSTRACT

The impact of genomics in cancer



Alfredo Hidalgo Miranda


There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Every one of them develops because of the accumulation of alterations in the cellular genome (mutations) throughout time, resulting in uncontrolled cell growth and division of the cells from a particular organ or tissue. Cancer cells can also invade the surrounding tissues and can even get into the circulatory system in order to invade distant organs, in a process called metastasis. The firsts evidences suggesting that cancer arises as a consequence of the accumulation of mutations came from the late XIX Century and were obtained thanks to the observation of alterations in cell division in several tumors. In the last decades, high-throughput genomic analyses have led to the identification of an important number of genetic alterations associated with several human tumors. These Technologies have allowed us to obtain the whole genome sequence of a tumor and compare it against the normal DNA of a patient. In this way, the genomic characterization of tumors will have a profound impact in the way we prevent, detect and treat cancer, thanks to the development of targeted treatments which will be more efficient and less toxic for cancer patients.



Keywords: Cancer, genomics, sequencing, tumors, pathology.