Women with gene mutation may respond to chemotherapy differently

Women who harbour mutations in BRCA1, a gene implicated in some types of hereditary breast cancer, may respond differently to chemotherapy from those lacking such mutations, a new study has found.

Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Burnham Institute in LaJolla, California, presented these findings recently at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The work highlights the heterogeneity of cancers and the emergence of pharmacogenomics, foretelling a time when chemotherapeutic regimens will be tailor made according to the individual genetic profiles of patients and …