Cancers can be genetically tested to determine how dangerous they are, whether patients have been cured, and to possibly spare some patients from unnecessary chemotherapy, according to research from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

The research, released Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, shows how personalizing treatment can help fight cancer, said Luis A. Diaz, a researcher at the Baltimore center.

Genetics hasn’t delivered the fabled “magic bullet” to eradicate cancer, Diaz said. However, the discovery that the genetic abnormalities found in cancers have individual fingerprints is an unexpected benefit.

It will probably take about two years to move the test out of the research stage so it’s widely available to doctors, Diaz said.