"       Dr. Dan Theodorescu, a University of Virginia oncologist and cancer biologist, and Jae Lee, Ph.D., a computational biologist and bioinformatics statistician, have pioneered an algorithm to help. Their results are published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found online."

"       Using a panel of 60 diverse, human cancer cell lines from the National Cancer Institute (NCI-60), the researchers created and tested an algorithm to match the best potential treatment(s) for a particular tumor in a particular patient."

"       They used available data to draw conclusions and found their "coexpression extrapolation (COXEN) system" could be used to predict drug sensitivity for bladder cancer cell lines to two common chemotherapies, cisplatin and paclitaxel."

"       And they were able to predict the clinical responses of breast-cancer patients treated with commonly used chemotherapies, docetaxel and tamoxifen."

"       The researchers say that the algorithm can also be used to discover effective compounds for any form of cancer. It examines both cancer cells and drug activity at the molecular level and should allow prescreening for effectiveness of newly discovered drugs, helpful in lowering the failure rate of clinical trials and reducing the cost of drug development."

"       A gene test has been developed by Correlagen Diagnostics that, using a cheek swab or small blood sample, looks for thickening of the heart muscle, called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It's caused by a defect in one of several genes and can result
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