New Categorization for Cancers??

Cancers are categorized according to the tissue in which they originated, such as breast, bladder or stomach cancer. But tissues are composed of different types of cells.
Recently, researchers examined tumor samples of 12 different cancer types and concluded that the diagnosis would improve in about 10% of cancer cases if they tumors were defined by the cellular and molecular features, rather than the tissues in which they tumors originated. This would mean more accurate diagnosis in about 1 in 10 people.
The researchers reported particularly significant findings in bladder and breast cancers. At least three different subtypes of bladder cancer were identified, including one that was nearly identical to a form of non-small cell lung cancer called lung adenocarcinoma, and another most similar to squamous-cell cancers of the head and neck and of the lungs. Bladder cancer patients in treatment have often responded very differently when treated with the same systemic therapy for their seemingly identical cancer type, and the new findings may explain why that is.
The researchers confirmed known differences between two forms of breast cancers called basal-like and luminal. But they also discovered that these differences are significant and that basal-like breast cancers, commonly referred to as triple-negative, are a distinct class of tumor. Basal-like cancers are highly aggressive and more common among black and younger women.
Basal-like cancers do arise in the breast but, on the molecular level they have more in common with ovarian cancers and cancers of squamous-cell origin than with other subtypes of breast cancer. This is the first time ever anyone has been able to point to important molecular features shared by basal breast cancer. They also found that different cancer types have very similar immune signatures, a factor that may be relevant clinically with the rise of new immune therapies.
Further research could reveal that as many as 30 to 50 percent of cancers need to be reclassified, according to researchers.