Melanoma skin cancer cells harness a gene usually used by growing nerves to escape from their immediate area and spread through tissues, new research has found.

The NHS should offer all cancer patients genetic profiling of their cancers at diagnosis and during treatment to shape care and track how the disease evolves, a consensus group of leading experts has concluded.

The Institute of Cancer Research, London, strongly welcomes the news that the precision medicine olaparib has been approved in Europe for people with high-risk, early-stage breast cancer who have inherited faults in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.