Whereas in past decades, cancer was diagnosed, classified and treated according to the specific types of tissues it affected — breast cancer, for example, has traditionally been treated with drugs developed specifically for tumours in the breast — modern medicine takes a decidedly more personalised approach.
Today, explains Dr Warren Kaplan, the Chief of Informatics at the Garvan Institute of medical Research, cancer is thought of as a disease of DNA, rather than something that easily fits into "buckets" based on where in the tissue it originates. Read more...