This post is from the acor list citing article re gene dx- David

Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 10:12:51 EDT
From: Gary Takata <GTTakata@AOL.COM>
Subject: gene profiling identifies high-risk M M patients

Gene Profiling Identifies High-Risk Multiple Myeloma Patients
Researchers have identified a small subset of genes whose activity could
predict high-risk cases of multiple myeloma and potentially guide therapy
decisions in the future. They presented their data recently at the American
Association for Cancer Research's second International Conference on Molecular
Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development. NCI provided partial funding for the
study.
 The investigators, from the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, followed 532 multiple myeloma
patients for 7 years after a blood stem cell transplant to create a genetic
profile to chart the severity of the disease. The team determined that the
activity of as few as 17 genes could mean the difference between high or low risk
for a poor prognosis. About 30 percent of the genes that predict high risk are
found on chromosome 1.
 In addition, around 13 percent of all the patients they studied exhibited a
genetic pattern that fit into the high-risk category, a frequency that rose to
76 percent among relapsed patients. An increase in the gene-expression risk
score among relapsed patients provides evidence that there are likely to be
small subsets of high-risk cells even in patients with low-risk disease, and that
current therapeutics are suboptimal in that they kill off the low-risk cells,
leaving behind cells that exhibit a high-risk genetic profile. "Gene
expression profiles have now provided us with signposts that help us risk-stratify
patients and tailor therapies accordingly," said lead researcher Dr. John D.
Shaughnessy, Jr.