Mitochondrial Genome Scan Finds Cancer Mutations in Saliva DNA Samples

Johns Hopkins' Joseph Califano discusses the link between mitochondrial mutations and oral cancer with Duke's Amanda Parrish
Cancer researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute have discovered a series of mitochondrial mutations linked to oral squamous cell carcinoma by analyzing the saliva from cancer patients with a new microarray, providing an initial step toward non-invasive early-detection screens.
Joseph Califano, associate professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins, has studied the effects of carcinogens on the mitochondrial genome for the past four years. His team previously found that both tumors and saliva from head-neck cancer patients contained an increased amount of mitochondrial DNA content.
Read more
|
Sequence Analysis