Are all the different cancers really that different or is it all just cancer and we just specify where it formed?
In: Biology
One of the many ways that cancers behave differently, and can respond to different treatments, can be due to an inherited genetic mutation. Even patients with the same type of cancer can have drastically different responses to treatment if the cancer is based on different mutations. A great example is the BRCA mutation, which affects much more than breast cancer, which it is commonly known for.
For example, I work on clinical trials for prostate cancer. I test patients with the same “type” (stage, location, etc) of prostate cancer for genetic mutations, and provide treatment specific to those mutations.
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