Friday, April 17, 2015

MATH scores Used to Determine Cancer Aggressiveness


Cancer is defined as abnormal cells growing and multiplying as a result of a mutation in the genes that control their function. As these cells grow and multiply, more mutations are accumulated. As these mutations multiply, sub-populations of cells form in the tumor, each with their own mutational characteristics. This variability is known as intra-tumor heterogeneity, and results in worse prognoses for patients. This is because treatments today are targeted towards specific mutations, not clusters of many different mutations at occurring at once. 

To measure the severity of the cancer by the level of its intra-tumor heterogeneity, researchers at Ohio State University created a new scoring tool, called MATH (mutant-allele tumor heterogeneity). The higher the MATH score, the more genetic variability exists in the cancer cells. The study done was performed retrospectively on 305 individuals with head and neck cancers, and it was found that a 10% increase in MATH scores resulted in an 8.8 % higher likelihood of death. This new scoring method may help doctors identify the severity of cancer in patients and provide them with information to administer more effective treatment protocols.

3 comments:

  1. After reading this article, I'm really interested in exactly how the calculation is performed. Also, besides the obvious advantage of helping doctors, I feel this tool could be of use to patients as well, providing a straight forward easy to understand fact about their diagnosis.

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  2. Interesting- this new method must have taken a long time to devise. This may have a lot of potential as researchers get closer to finding a cure for cancer.

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  3. Wow this is really interesting. Using this method doctors can possibly take control on cancer and diagnose patients more efficiently and more accurately.

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