This month, it's the gene that makes skin cancer spread to other parts of the body, where it turns deadly.
Researchers are, in fact, making unprecedented progress at getting to the molecular roots of cancer.
And they are tantalizingly close to gene-based strategies for diagnosing, preventing and treating the dreaded condition. But cancer is actually hundreds of genetic diseases, not just one, and there almost surely isn't one magic-bullet cure that will emerge from the research. We're not there yet. So far, after two decades of intense research, scientists have identified more than 100 cancer genes, according to the National Cancer Institute. And they estimate there are at least another 100 left to find.