Cancer signaling studies take a page from Genetics methods
/The following article provides insights into the promise of applying quantitative approaches in the context of tumor tissues and clinical environments. Genetics approaches have dominated cancer research because they generate such an abundance of data ( and because the methodology is so widely and readily generalizable). While genetic variations clearly play an important role in cancer, deviant signaling drives cancer progression and signaling molecules are the targets of most chemotherapeutics. This highlights the importance of understanding cancer signaling pathways with data-rich and quantitatively rigorous methods, similar to those used in genetics. The following article in Science Signaling discusses this topic and is both thorough and accessible. —RPR
Why geneticists stole cancer research even though cancer is primarily a signaling disease
Michael B. Yaffe, Science Signaling
Abstract—Genetic approaches to cancer research have dramatically advanced our understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease, leading to similar genetics-based approaches for precision therapy, which have been less successful. Reconfiguring and adapting the types of technologies that underlie genetic research to dissect tumor cell signaling in clinical samples may offer an alternative road forward.
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