In silico functional profiling of individual prostate cancer tumors: many genes, few functions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Identification of genes that are differently expressed is a common approach used to analyze genetic mechanisms underlying cancer development. However, recent study results suggest that many such genes relate to a small number of biological functions. We hypothesized that analysis of these functions provides a better understanding of tumor biology than does actual identification of these genes.

Materials and methods

We re-analyzed publicly available gene expression data for paired samples of prostate tumor and adjacent normal tissue from the same patients to identify genes differently expressed in individual tumors and then used them to identify the functions.

Results

We found significant interindividual variation in the type and the number of functions. Aft

SUBMITTER: Gorlov IP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3922615 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature