In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/health/in-gene-sequencing-treatment-for-leukemia-glimpses-of-the-future.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 6:05 AM
Subject: re: In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    While whole-genome sequencing may be a routine part of healthcare in the future, we should note that it is not what lead to Dr. Wartman's breakthrough. In 2012, there are approved drugs against only a handful of the gene products (mostly kinases, like Dr. Wartman's Flt3) that are known to drive cancers. Screening cancer patients for mutations in (or over-expression of) these drug targets is still vastly cheaper than whole genome sequencing, and could lead to better, cheaper more effective treatment of cancers today.

Barry Haskell Levine