Ten years ago it cost scientists millions of dollars and several years to sequence the full human genome for just one person. Scientists are now using that technology to sequence the
DNA code of malignant tumors and believe cancer will become a manageable condition within the next decade. After various studies, researchers believe they are on the verge of releasing a new technique that offers personalized cancer treatments, substantially increasing patients’ life expectancy.

A new study at the Tumor Profiling Unit in London is expected to open the door to new forms of cancer diagnosis, surveillance and treatment. Doctors believe studying the genetic makeup of each individual tumor will offer new effective cancer therapies, allowing terminally-ill patients to live healthy lives for a decade or longer.

“None of this is science fiction,” Cancer Research chief executive Alan Ashworth said. “One would think in five or ten years this will be absolutely routine practice for every cancer patient, and that’s what we’re aiming to bring about.”

Currently, tumor DNA can only be obtained through a biopsy, but Ashworth and his team home to develop a blood test that will identify tumor DNA present in the body through blood tests. They also hope their research will shed light on the mystery of “unknown primaries”—cancers of unknown origins—that account for about 5 percent of all cancers.

Ultimately, however, they hope their studies change the way cancer trials are conducted. Currently, cancer drugs are tested through a process that includes large trials involving thousands of patients. The trials look for small success rates among a large population and often lead to drugs that only benefit a minority of patients. Ashworth and his team hope future smaller studies could provide more meaningful results by testing drugs on a few hundred patients with a genetic makeup that is more likely to respond to the treatment.

“Basically, the way we’re developing drugs for cancer is now failing big time,” Ashworth said. “Certainly, the idea of developing old-fashioned chemotherapy is going out the window. Let’s design the trials for success rather than failure.”

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