Gene expression profiles: A success story
Cancer patients with the same clinical picture often
respond to very different types of treatment. Gene
expression profiles of groups of cancer patients have
revealed that what looks to the clinician as the same
disease can sometimes be one of several diseases at the
biochemical level. The latter can be distinguished by
characteristic expression profiles of certain groups of
genes. Once the biochemical nature of the disease has
been established, treatment can be tailored to the type of
disease a patient actually has.