Molecular Fingerprint of "Signature 3" Is Key.

• Position: CANCER TREATMENT

A molecular fingerprint, termed "signature 3," is found in stomach cancer, opening the door to potential treatment with therapies such as platinum drugs. This finding has the potential to save thousands of lives a year by delivering a more-effective, targeted treatment for cancer patients.

Documented in a paper published in Nature Communications, a large-scale computational screen was performed across 36 different tumor types by a multidisciplinary team of researchers. They confirmed the previously noted presence of signature 3 in breast, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, but unexpectedly found evidence for the presence of this same signature in stomach cancer.

"Gastric cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and we have potentially identified a new treatment methodology for some of these patients," says Ludmil Alexandrov, a Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory researcher, corresponding author, and principal investigator on the project.

"Overall, this...