Australian researchers have sequenced two pancreatic cancer genomes and published the results online at www.icgc. Britain has published material on breast cancer, Japan has published genomes on liver cancer and China on gastric cancer.

We need to have about 100 tumour sequences for the first experiment to really work out what drivers are promoting cancer and what genes have been lost that would normally prevent cancer. said Grimmond. That means that in about two to three years patients of pancreatic cancer may be able to get individualized medication based on their genome.

Since the genetic mutations will be readily available the traditional clinic trials will target specific mutations and save a lot of time, money and effort. The anti cancer drugs will be able to target specific abnormalities in pancreatic cancer genes. Since it is such an aggressive cancer and causes such rapid deterioration the researchers hope that basing the prescription on the patient ™s individual genome will help save those diagnosed with the cancer faster.