Two revolutionary studies on cancer were published this week in the journal Science. It appears that the genetic changes related to cancer are more complex than researchers ever imagined.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center examined DNA from 22 patients' brain tumors and 24 patients' pancreatic tumors. They revealed the existence of some genetic alterations that help turn normal cells into glioblastoma multiforme, the most common type of brain cancer and pancreatic cancer. Genes that appear not to have anything in common whatsoever, were all acting in common pathways to cancer that offer the most promising targets for new drugs.

Genes blamed for one person's brain tumor were different from the malefactors for the next patient. In other words, as Dr. Bert Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute explained, "If you have 100 patients, you have 100 different diseases." Not very encouraging, is it?

It seems that the typical pancreatic tumor had 63 genetic mutations, while the average brain tumor had 60. One unexpected finding was a new gene called IDH1 found in glioblastoma multiforme. Younger patients suffer from this mutation and the paradox is they also live longer than the ones who suffer from the other type of brain cancer. "Glioblastoma multiformes used to be thought of as one disease. It is now clear they are two," said Dr. Victor Velculescu of John Hopkins University.

Therefore new less general drugs must be made in order to attack specific targets of a tumor's cellular mechanism.