Using machine learning, researchers at MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the US have created a computational model that can analyse the sequence of about 400 genes and use that information to predict where a given tumour originated in the body.

Using this model, the researchers showed that they could accurately classify at least 40% of tumours of unknown origin with high confidence, in a dataset of about 900 patients.

This approach enabled a 2.2-fold increase in the number of patients who could have been eligible for a genomically guided, targeted treatment, based on where their cancer originated.