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Cancer: looking outside the genome

Abstract

The ‘gene-centric’ approach has produced a wealth of information about the origins and progression of cancer, and investigators seek a full compilation of altered gene expressions for tumour characterization and treatment. However, the cancer genome appears to be far more unstable than previously thought. It may therefore be prudent to augment gene-level approaches with supra-genomic strategies that circumvent the genomic variability of cancer cells.

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Figure 1: Diffusion constraints govern tumour growth.
Figure 2: Endothelial and tumour cells as targets.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Anderson, R. Kerbel and B. Vogelstein for reading the manuscript and for their comments. We thank C. Lamont for figure graphics.

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Folkman, J., Hahnfeldt, P. & Hlatky, L. Cancer: looking outside the genome. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 1, 76–79 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35036100

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