Identifying causing mechanisms in cancers with unknown primary site improves treatment & surviva

Dr Zoran Gatalica discuss identifying the molecular profile of a tumour where the primary site is unknown and how it is crucial to the choice of treatment.

In up to five percent of all cancers, the site of the primary tumour is unknown and the disease is not diagnosed until it is at an advanced stage, when the cancer has metastasised (spread to other parts of the body).

Until recently, the choice of treatment has been based on efforts to find biomarkers that could indicate the site of origin, but now a team of researchers has succeeded in identifying the particular molecular profiles of the metastatic tumours in a large group of patients.