linkin cancer tumors that appears to predict prognosis in at least 10 types of malignancies.

If it passes further testing, the signature may help doctors and patients decide on therapies that suit particular cancer types, a giant step forward in the emerging era of tailored treatments.

"It's a very exciting study," said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. "It's using molecular genetics to try to predict which patients will respond or won't respond to current therapies. Then we would be able to offer patients who may have a particularly resistant type of a cancer other therapeutic options."

"It will allow each individual to predict with 95 percent or greater accuracy what would be the likelihood of successful therapy," added study author Dr. Gennadi Glinsky, an associate professor of molecular genetics and cancer biology at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego.