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CANCER EVOLUTION

Evolutionary dependencies show paths to cancer development

Nature Genetics volume 52, pages 1135–1136 (2020)Cite this article

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Patterns of co-occurring and mutually exclusive mutations reveal synergistic interactions among cancer driver genes. A new study functionally confirms these interactions and builds the pairwise relationships into networks of pathway disruption that have better predictive power than specific mutations alone.

Cancers are clonally expanding populations of cells in which the normal regulation of cell division and behavior is undermined. This dysregulation is inherited by daughter cells and is thought to be facilitated by a small number of driver mutations. Genome sequencing studies comparing samples of cancer cells and normal cells from the same patient have been highly successful in identifying the most commonly occurring driver mutations1. Although most cancers appear to have between one and ten principal drivers2, these mutations do not simply work in an additive manner in transforming normal cells into cancer cells. In this issue, Mina et al.3 set out to develop the idea that some driver mutations cooperate and therefore tend to co-occur in cancers, whereas others are functionally redundant and tend to occur mutually exclusively.

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Fig. 1: Paths of cancer development revealed by evolutionary dependency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Human Genetics Unit, MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Martin S. Taylor

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  1. Martin S. Taylor
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Correspondence to Martin S. Taylor.

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Taylor, M.S. Evolutionary dependencies show paths to cancer development. Nat Genet 52, 1135–1136 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00728-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00728-4

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