Description: SUNDAY, Sept. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Someday in the future, people may routinely have doctors scan their personal genomes, looking for this or that aberrant gene to help prevent, spot or treat a cancer.

"We are in the midst of both an evolution and a revolution in cancer care," said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.

While gene-specific treatments such as the leukemia "wonder drug" Gleevec are already on the scene, "we still have an incredibly long way to go in terms of how we understand the basic genetics of cancer," he said.

"Right now, we are working still at a very crude level -- the future will be much more dynamic," Lichtenfeld said.

The "genetics generation" has much to be proud of, however. The mapping of the human genome in the late 1990s, the advent of high-output methods to comb through thousands of genes, and a deepening knowledge of the complexities of DNA and RNA are bringing new discoveries each week