Mutated Gene in Bladder Tumors Boosts Effect of Chemotherapy
From Times staff and wire reports
The presence of a mutated p53 gene in advanced bladder tumors drastically alters their susceptibility to chemotherapy and can be used to predict which patients should receive such treatment, according to Dr. Richard Cote and his colleagues at the USC/Norris Cancer Center. They report in the Jan. 9 Nature that patients with the mutated p53 gene who received chemotherapy had only one-third the risk of recurrence and double the survival rate of patients who received no chemotherapy.
In contrast, patients with a normal p53 gene received no benefit from the drugs.
