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Health-care inequality could deepen with precision oncology

Failure to address systemic bias in health-care provision and genetic databases will make existing disparities worse.
  1. Jyoti Madhusoodanan

    1. Jyoti Madhusoodanan is a science writer based in Portland, Oregon.

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The legacy of a woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951 epitomizes, in principle, the promise of precision oncology. Researchers extracted cells from her tumour and cultured them. After her death, they scrutinized her cells’ genomes for cancer-causing mutations, and used them to test drugs that could target those genetic variants. This paved the way for the first genetically targeted cancer treatments.

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Nature 585, S13-S15 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02678-7

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Precision Oncology, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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