Drug resistance and microarrays

摘要

The development of high-throughput global expression profiling techniques—with their unprecedented capability for measuring and comparing the expression levels of virtually every gene in the human genome—was expected to be followed closely by advances in medical research. Great hopes were held that microarrays would break the code of cancer cells—from their origin to their adaptation to the tumor environment and ultimately their supremacy over normal cells—and lead to better detection, as well as more accurate diagnosis and prognosis. Visions blossomed of personalized medicine, better response rates, decreased side effects, less drug resistance, and, eventually, higher cancer cure rates.