A single gene may play a major role in nearly all cases of one of the most common human cancers, a study says. A team from Barts and the London Queen Mary’s School of Medicine in London used gene chip array technology to identify the key skin cancer gene. The technology allows scientists to look at thousands of genes at once, helping to pinpoint the role played by individual ones in much greater detail. Experts said the technique may lead to similar discoveries for other cancers. Dr Mark Matfield, scientific consultant for the Association for International Cancer Research, which helped to fund the study, said: “There are over 200 different types of cancer and each one is caused by a handful of key genetic changes.
