US medical officials are considering a project to map the genetic anomalies linked to cancer in a new effort to combat the disease. The Human Cancer Genome Project will be more ambitious than that undertaken to completely map the human genome, completed in 2003 after 13 years of research, New York Times reported Monday. The cancer genome project aims to examine the DNA of thousands of tumor samples to identify the mutations which allow cancer to develop and grow, according to the report. By comparing these samples with healthy tissue, researchers expect to create a catalogue of the genetic mutations and conditions which give rise to cancer. Such a database would allow doctors to identify and possibly treat and prevent cancer.
