Systems Biology and Cancer

Cancer is often associated with dysregulation of multiple pathways. Kreeger and Lauffenburger (2010) explored how tumor genomic transcriptome and metabolic data might be used in computational modeling to derive actionable understanding. They emphasized analysis of specific pathways that provide an organizing principle for approaches to therapy. They noted that pathways frequently interact. They also stressed the importance of systems biology modeling techniques to further the understanding of the key processes in cancer.

A number of investigators have emphasized the importance of distinguishing driver mutations, which have a major impact on tumor characteristics, from passenger mutations.