As we know, there is limited understanding of the molecular biology of nasopharyngeal cancer. To date, no targeted therapy has been established and there is an urgent need for a comprehensive genomic landscape of this disease to guide the development of novel therapies.

In a novel study, scientists analyzed the genomic DNA and proteins of over 100 nasopharyngeal cancer patients in Singapore, and discovered a distinct mutational signature and 9 significantly mutated genes associated with nasopharyngeal cancer, providing rationale for developing novel therapies for this deadly disease.

With the discovery of these previously unrecognized genetic defects in nasopharyngeal cancer, Scientists will explore the detailed molecular mechanisms of these defects in the next phase of research, and evaluate whether some of the genetic defects can be explored in the clinic to effectively treat this disease.

“We wanted to deepen the understanding of the etiology as well biology of nasopharyngeal cancer with the hope for improvements in diagnostics, prognostics and therapy. By completely deciphering all human genes at the single nucleotide level, our current findings provide an important foundation for the study of the molecular basis underlying this malignancy. More importantly, many potential therapeutic drugs have surfaced from our analysis, with some of them already in use for treating other types of tumours. Therefore, the results have the potential to rapidly facilitate the development of novel treatment strategies for nasopharyngeal cancer patients,” said Prof Koeffler.

Reference:

The genomic landscape of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Nature Genetics 2014;