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School scientists play role in cancer genes study

School scientists are among a group of researchers who might have discovered mutated genes that cause breast and colon cancers.

Phillip J. Buckhaults (left), an assistant professor in the School of Medicine, and Randall Crowshaw, a surgery resident in the medical school, worked with researchers from 11 medical and research centers around the nation on a study that examined the DNA sequence of more than 18,000 genes, the vast majority of the human genome.

They identified 280 candidate cancer genes, or CAN genes, that frequently become mutated in breast and colon cancers.

These are the genes that scientists believe cause most forms of these two diseases, said Buckhaults, a senior scientist with the S.C. Cancer Center, a research partnership between Palmetto Health and the university.

"Individual tumors on average have about 15 CAN genes mutated," he said. "Tumors that look very similar under the microscope have very different sets of genes mutated, making tumors almost as genetically distinct as the people in whom they are found."

This discovery has huge implications, Buckhaults said, because scientists believe that knowing the exact composition of a cancer will allow them to treat it more appropriately from the first diagnosis.

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