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Cancers should no longer be categorised by where they are first formed in the body, but instead by similarities in tumour types, researchers say.
A US-led study of 33 cancer types from more than 10,000 patients found they could be reclassified into 28 clusters that shared similar molecules.
Reclassification would ultimately lead to better, more targeted treatments, said the researchers.
“It’s time to rewrite the textbooks on cancer,” one of the authors said.
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‘Break down silos’
Cancers have traditionally been classed and treated according to the part of the body from which they originate, such as the breasts or lungs.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lung cancer is one area where treatment could be improved, researchers say
Immunotherapy – where the body’s immune system is enlisted to help fight cancer – is one treatment that could potentially be rolled out more widely, Prof Benz said.
Drugs used for the treatment of other conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, could also ultimately be repurposed to fight cancer.
In other cases, cancers that are harder to treat might require a combination of medications.
Lung and colorectal cancers are among those that would often benefit from more targeted treatment, Prof Benz said.
But he explained that it could take up to a decade for new treatments to become available because of the difficulty in getting drugs approved.
He called for oncology departments, which tend to focus on specific areas of the body, and drugs companies to work together better to improve care for patients.
“It’s time to rewrite the textbooks on cancer, and it’s time to break down the silos in clinical oncology that make it difficult for patients to take advantage of this paradigm shift in cancer classification,” Prof Benz said.
Dr Justine Alford, from Cancer Research UK, said: “By revealing the molecular groups that cancers tend to fall into, this research opens up new possibilities for patients who would traditionally be treated based on where in the body their cancer is.
“Identifying patients most likely to benefit from a particular treatment could also help improve clinical trials.
“The real test now will be to put this knowledge into practice and find out if this way of treating patients helps save more lives,” she added.
The research was published in Cell.
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