Gene Signature Can Predict Who Will Survive Chemotherapy, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University College of Medicine Study

An eight gene 'signature' can predict length of relapse-free survival after chemotherapy, finds new research in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine. Researchers from Academia Sinica and the National Taiwan University College of Medicine first identified genes that were involved in cellular invasion, a property of many cancer cells, using the National Cancer Institute's 60 human cancer cell line panel (NCI-60). Comparing the pattern of activation of each of these genes in different cell lines with how these cell lines responded to 99 different anti-cancer drugs, helped narrow down the list of genes to just those which could potentially influence the outcome of chemotherapy.