Cristian Tomasetti, Ph.D. (IMAGE)
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A study led by City of Hope and TGen provides a systematic comparison of mutation burdens in organs from both healthy individuals and those with cancers, showing that cancer cells carry approximately four times as many DNA mutations as normal cells. “This research helps answer why some individuals get cancer,” said senior author Cristian Tomasetti, Ph.D., director of City of Hope’s Center for Cancer Prevention, Early Detection and Monitoring and professor in the Early Detection and Prevention Division at TGen. “We studied how mutations vary from person to person. We found evidence that even among healthy individuals, there are strikingly large differences in the number of mutations present in their organs, with some apparently healthy people carrying as many mutations as those found in people with cancer, making it much more probable for the former to get to cancer. These differences in mutations play a bigger role in cancer development than we previously thought.”
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TGen, part of City of Hope
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