The number of cancer patients is increasing as the number of senior citizens in society increases. It will, however, be possible to treat many patients more efficiently thanks to advanced mapping of genes.

2014.02.14 | Lotte Fisker Jørgensen

“A quiet revolution in the future of cancer treatment,” says Professor Torben Ørntoft on the use of NGS - Next Generation Sequencing - which is an advanced form of gene sequencing

With the NGS tool, he and his department can quickly help doctors carry out more precise diagnoses of diseases that can be read in the genome. And this will come to revolutionise future treatment.

“With NGS we will gain much greater knowledge of the individual cancer patient’s genes. And with greater knowledge it will also be much easier to find exactly the medicine or treatment that will have the best effect on the individual patient,” says Professor Torben Ørntoft, who leads the Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA) at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital.

The department is one of the world leaders in the area.

Better for patients and society

Next Generation Sequencing is a further development of the gene sequencing that was used in the year 2000 to map the entire human genome. That in itself was a milestone in genetics. But where it previously took several months to sequence genes, with today’s new NGS technology scientists can carry out the analysis in just a few days.

This also means the method is far cheaper:

“For the patients there are without doubt great perspectives in the fact that treatments can be adapted to the individual person. But there are also large socio-economic benefits to be gained by being able to target the treatment and make it more effective,” says Torben Ørntoft, and continues:

“We know, for example, that some medicine only works on some of the cancer patients. Knowing why this is will mean we can be much better at treating in accordance with individual needs.”

NGS is not only for better treatment of cancer diseases. Immune, cardiovascular and endocrine disorders are some of the other diseases that Torben Ørntoft and his department research in.

Earlier diagnoses will benefit patients

The possibilities of more targeted treatment with the help of NGS is not just a question of which medicine works best on the individual. Torben Ørntoft also expects that NGS for earlier diagnoses will be an important tool in the fight against cancer.

“With the help of NGS we expect to be able to detect cancer earlier in the future. And as time is crucial in cancer treatment, I hope that in the future we will be able to prolong the life of cancer patients by becoming better at quicker diagnoses and more tailored treatment,” says Torben Ørntoft.

NGS is already now well on the way to becoming an important tool in cancer treatment. This is the case for e.g. prostate cancer.

Here Torben Ørntoft and his colleagues have recently documented how the NGS technology can be used to distinguish between aggressive and benign prostate cancer:

“With the knowledge we obtain by means of NGS, we will be able to avoid operating on 90 percent of the patients, because they will be able to live with the disease without significant symptoms. In this way they will also be able to avoid the side effects associated with the operation.”

It will, however, take a number of years before these opportunities are fully developed so they can be incorporated in ordinary patient treatment.

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Facts about NGS

• NGS stands for “Next Generation Sequencing”.
• It is a tool that can analyse and register the structure of DNA in the genome.
• The technique has been known for some years.
• With the latest generation of the tool it has become significantly quicker and cheaper to sequence many genes at once.
• The analyses can now reveal deviations in the genes in just a few days.

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Read more

Together with a team of international researchers, Torben Ørntoft received a grant of DKK 20 million from the Danish Council for Strategic Research in December 2013. The grant will be used for the development of a safe and simple NGS screening, which is expected to significantly lower the mortality rate for bowel cancer patients. Read the news here 

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Further information

Professor Torben Ørntoft
Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA)
Tel.: +45 2819 2680
orntoft@ki.au.dk