Measuring Clonal Evolution in Cancer with Genomics.

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Embargo End Date

Authors

Williams, MJ
Sottoriva, A
Graham, TA

Document Type

Journal Article

Date

2019-08-31

Date Accepted

2019-05-06

Abstract

Cancers originate from somatic cells in the human body that have accumulated genetic alterations. These mutations modify the phenotype of the cells, allowing them to escape the homeostatic regulation that maintains normal cell number. Viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology, the transformation of normal cells into malignant cells is evolution in action. Evolution continues throughout cancer growth, progression, treatment resistance, and disease relapse, driven by adaptation to changes in the cancer's environment, and intratumor heterogeneity is an inevitable consequence of this evolutionary process. Genomics provides a powerful means to characterize tumor evolution, enabling quantitative measurement of evolving clones across space and time. In this review, we discuss concepts and approaches to quantify and measure this evolutionary process in cancer using genomics.

Citation

Annual review of genomics and human genetics, 2019, 20 pp. 309 - 329

Source Title

Publisher

ANNUAL REVIEWS

ISSN

1527-8204

eISSN

1545-293X

Research Team

Notes