In what has been called by Medical News Today "a significant breakthrough in the fight against two of the world's deadliest cancers" scientists in the US have mapped out the complete genetic blueprint of more than twenty thousand genes that are involved in 24 pancreatic cancers and 22 brain cancers. The genetic mapping includes not only the single gene mutation but also the pathways which connect them and which help to keep the tumors growing and developing. Scientists from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore unraveled the mystery of the genetic mapping presenting the work as two studies which are part of the September 5 2008 issue of "Science Express". This team is the same one which led the genome mapping for colorectal and breast cancer last year. Brain and Pancreatic cancer has a very low rate of survival and this year along the scientists report 38 000 Americans will develop pancreatic cancer and about 95 per cent of them will die from the disease. The rate of survival for the brain cancer is just about the same with fewer new cases reported each year at about twenty thousand. The scientists found about twelve core gene signaling control paths and the process by which they were used was altered for each kind of tumor in most of the cases that they studied. Co-author Dr Bert Vogelstein who is co-director of the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator said: "This perspective changes the way we think about solid tumors and their management because drugs or other agents that target the physiologic effects of these pathways rather than individual gene components are likely to be the most useful approach for developing new therapies." Science Express Published online 4 September 2008."Core Signaling Pathways in Human Pancreatic Cancers Revealed by Global Genomic Analyses." "An Integrated Genomic Analysis of Human Glioblastoma Multiforme."Science Express Published online 4 September 2008.DOI: 10.1126/science.1164382.http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;1164382v1