Novel gene abnormalities discovered in a subpopulation of lung and colorectal tumors could potentially identify patients with a good chance of responding to highly specific “targeted” drugs already in use for treating other cancers, scientists report. The genetic alterations – pieces of two genes fused together – showed up in a massive search of the DNA in stored tumor samples of non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer, said researchers. These specific genetic abnormalities had not been previously linked to the two cancer types.