figuring the first step

"cancer: (n.) 1. Pathology.
a. a malignant and invasive growth or tumor, esp. one originating in epithelium, tending to recur after excision and to metastasize to other sites.
b.any disease characterized by such growths." (dictionary.com)

the past few years i've unfortunately come to know quite a bit of people who have been diagnosed with cancer. it's a horrible feeling because it's common knowledge that there's no known cure to date for the progressively debilitating disease. however, there is progress.

the genome of a cancer patient has revealed several genetic mutations that may attribute to the beginnings of this condition of abnormally proliferating cells. we may have very well found what causes cancer! this is big. after all, the first step of fixing something is identifying the problem at hand, in this case, specific genetic mutations. clearly it's still in the early stages, but imagine how this discovery is going to help tweak cancer research in a more positive direction.

source: NYTimes - "Scientists Decode Set of Cancer Genes"