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Cancer Genomics and Precision Medicine: A Way Toward Early Diagnosis and Effective Cancer Treatment

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Genome Analysis and Human Health

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Abstract

Since the first draft of the Human Genome Project was completed in April 2003, biomedical researchers have been mining and extrapolating genomic data toward the goal of improving human health and realizing medical benefits. The promise of “personalized oncomedicine,” the matching of therapeutics to appropriate molecular targets in individual cancer patients, lies in the convergence of cancer researchers, computational biologist, and clinicians to identify the driving mutations involved in tumor progression and metastasis and pursue appropriate therapies. The virtual concept of “cancer genome” in the development of uncontrolled cell growth was conceived as early as late nineteenth and early twentieth century by Theodor Boveri (Boveri 2008). Boveri hypothesized that malignant tumors could be the result of a certain abnormal condition of the chromosomes arising from multipolar mitosis. Several decades later the discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome as the genetic driver of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) provided the experimental evidence for Boveri’s hypothesis (Nowell and Hungerford 1961).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jyoti Athanikar for critically reading the manuscript. B.A. is an Intermediate Fellow of the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance [IA/I(S)/12/2/500635 to BA] and a Young Investigator of the DST-FAST Track scheme.

Competing Interests

No competing interests to be disclosed.

Dr. Bushra Ateeq

Dr. Bushra Ateeq is an Assistant Professor at Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (BSBE), IIT, Kanpur, India. The primary research focus of Dr. Bushra’s laboratory is to understand the complex molecular events involved in prostate and breast cancer, identify early diagnostic markers and valuable therapeutic targets. Her lab focuses on experimental evaluation of the functional relevance of the genetic rearrangements, copy number changes, and somatic alterations identified by genomic approaches, using molecular and cellular approaches.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, UP, India

    Ritika Tiwari & Bushra Ateeq

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  1. Ritika Tiwari
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  2. Bushra Ateeq
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Correspondence to Bushra Ateeq .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cytogenetics, National Reference Laboratory, Dr Lal PathLabs, New Delhi, India

    Leena Rawal

  2. Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Sher Ali

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Tiwari, R., Ateeq, B. (2017). Cancer Genomics and Precision Medicine: A Way Toward Early Diagnosis and Effective Cancer Treatment. In: Rawal, L., Ali, S. (eds) Genome Analysis and Human Health. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4298-0_2

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