Testing the System

Britain's National Health Service aims to "test whether an entire health-care system is ready" for the personalized selection of cancer treatments via broad genetic testing, Nature News reports. "In its first phase, the program will be rolled out to as many as 12,000 NHS cancer patients over two years, beginning in early 2011," according to Nature. Breast, colorectal, prostate, and ovarian cancer patients being treated at six NHS hospitals will be screened for "several dozen mutations in about a dozen" cancer-related genes, the report adds. Fabrice André of the Gustave Roussy Institute in Villejuif, France, tells Nature that the NHS program could "really change the landscape of how molecular testing is being done for cancer. ... If they succeed, then it's going to be a major step forward."