Targeting brain cancer

Seven years after her brain cancer diagnosis, Liz Salmi decided she wanted to know more about the makeup of the tumor that changed her life.

Salmi had already undergone two surgeries to remove the grade II astrocytoma, an invasive but usually slow-growing brain tumor. After her second surgery, she was treated with Temodar (temozolomide), a chemotherapy drug, for two years. But Salmi, who was 29 when she was diagnosed in 2008, knew her cancer could not be cured. She wanted to be ready when it returned.

“I’m living with a brain cancer, and I keep up with what’s going on,” says the 38-year-old communications specialist, who lives in Sacramento, California.

In 2015, Salmi read about powerful genomic sequencing tools that made it possible to analyze tumor tissue—peeking inside brain cancer cells and looking for the genetic drivers of the disease. Many experts were arguing that tumors should be classified not only by their appearance under a microscope—the traditional approach—but also according to the presence of certain genetic changes.