Analysis of gene expression in a developmental context emphasizes distinct biological leitmotifs in human cancers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In recent years, the molecular underpinnings of the long-observed resemblance between neoplastic and immature tissue have begun to emerge. Genome-wide transcriptional profiling has revealed similar gene expression signatures in several tumor types and early developmental stages of their tissue of origin. However, it remains unclear whether such a relationship is a universal feature of malignancy, whether heterogeneities exist in the developmental component of different tumor types and to which degree the resemblance between cancer and development is a tissue-specific phenomenon.

Results

We defined a developmental landscape by summarizing the main features of ten developmental time courses and projected gene expression from a variety of human tumor types onto this

SUBMITTER: Naxerova K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2530866 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature