A Life Extension Foundation News article reports on the prospects for mapping the genetic code of cancer: "National Institutes of Health leaders are debating the venture, which would be as ambitious as the Human Genome Project, and perhaps as costly. Labs would need many years and perhaps billions of dollars to decode the DNA of roughly 30,000 genes in each of many hundred tumors. Set mutations in certain of those genes can spur the out-of-control cell growth of cancer." You may recall that scientists recently proposed that only 67 genes played a part in turning normal cells into cancerous cells. Greater understanding of cancer mechanisms tends to lead to a greater understanding of aging.
Link: http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=717&Section=DISEASE