In cancer biology there is a specific cancer "driver genes" concept. Are there any databases or other resources related to that subject? Kind of: (cancer) - (list of drivers) table. In general, how accepted this concept in the field? Does proposition (set of mutations) --> (specific cancer) and vice versa is common or rare situation? Reference to a seminal paper on the subject will be great! Thanks for your input!
The concept of driver genes has been established in oncology in the last 15 years. There are many issues that still need research, includinf the very concept of driver gene.
I would recommend you to read the following article
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/50/14330.full.pdf
Best regards
Tomas
Thanks, Tomas! So, you would say that it is still "in works" concept?
All our concepts in cancer are "in works". Ten years ago we had no idea what MiRNAs were doing in cancer. Now we are just starting to understand their action. Not to speak of long non codifying RNA, which we do not know what they do in cancer. The driver mutation is a concept that has changed the treatment of melanoma and chronic myeloid leukemia. So that it is a very useful concept if we keep in mind that a driver mutation can change along the evolution of a tumor. This means that the driver mutation today may be different fromf the driver mutation of that same tumor tomorrow, The other concept to keep in mind is that tumors are heterogeneous so that not all the cells may have the same driver mutation.
Best regards
Tomas
Please add to the concept of driver mutation the concept of "driver pathway", that would give a better conceptual understanding of the issue.
Thanks, Tomas! Big help, really! One more question, if you have time. Looking through a literature and some databases, I got an impression that there are no concrete set of drivers for a particular cancer type, - kind of variable group of 10 or even more suspected genes.Is there any cancer type where there are small number ( bellow 4-5), for say 80-90% of samples, specific drivers? I would guess it might be correct for a driver pathways? Thanks!
Dear Dmitry
In hematological cancers you will usually find a driver mutation and a driver pathway. For example Chronic Myeloid Leukemia usually has the same driver mutation and pathway for the Philadelphia Chromosome. Something similar happens with Burkitt's Lymphoma. In solid tumors the Her2/neu positive breast cancer and the Kras mutation in colorectal cancer may represent other examples. The cancerization process of colonic mucosa from adenoma to adenocarcinoma represents an interesting mutation process (Fearon and Vogelstein model) and even it should not be considered as a model of driver gene, I think that the mutated genes in this case represent what I have called as "associated driver genes". If you want to read more on this issue see
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10699988
Best regards
Tomas
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