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The different behaviors of two tumor classes must rest upon differences in gene expression, and so measuring RNA levels may well enable us to predict the class of leukemia a patient has and plan treatment accordingly.
The recent availability of microarrays makes that strategy possible. Microarrays consist of thousands of DNA sequences attached to a solid matrix. When the microarray is exposed to RNA taken from a tumor and labeled with fluorescent dyes, the degree of fluorescence indicates the degree to which each corresponding gene is expressed in the patient's cells. It seems a simple step to determine which spots are diagnostic of ALL and which are diagnostic of AML. |