Cancer Genome Sequencing and Functional Genomics: From Translational to Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Dulbecco noted that ‘‘If we wish to learn more about cancer, we must now concentrate on the cellular genome’’, and he advocated sequencing ‘‘the whole genome of a selected animal species’’, specifically, the human genome [2]. The Human Genome Project (HGP) began in 1989 with the goal to identify and map the human genes and understand human biology. In 2000, President Bill Clinton announced the completion of the two first drafts of human genome sequence [3,4] and in a White House press statement articulated that genomics would “lead to a new era of molecular medicine, an era that will bring new ways to prevent, diagnose, treat and cure disease” [5]. Now, a decade later, we know that despite the major advances in genomics research, neither the revolution in genomic medicine for improving health [6], nor genome heterogeneitybased personalized clinical decisions on prevention or treatment of cancer have yet arrived. Does genomic medicine remain a first priority to understanding cancer biology and discovering novel therapeutics? In a paper on global cancer statistics published in 2011 [7], the increase in cancer incidence and mortality is particularly growing in the developing world. A small decrease in cancer death rates in the economically developed parts of the world is mostly attributable to early detection, for example, of the most common type of breast cancer and improved treatment with tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors and tobacco control for reducing lung cancer incidence. But modest progress has been achieved in improving overall survival rates of patients with advanced stages of disease for which a cure still remains elusive.