The Somatic Nature of Cancer Allows It to Affect Highly Constrained Genes.

ABSTRACT: Cancer is special among genetic disorders in two major ways: first, cancer is a disease of the most basic of cellular functions, such as cell proliferation, differentiation, and the maintenance of genomic integrity. Second, in contrast to most genetic disorders that are mediated by germline (hereditary) mutations, cancer is largely a somatic disease. Here we show that these two traits are not detached and that it is the somatic nature of cancer that allows it to affect the most basic of cellular functions. We begin by demonstrating that cancer genes are both more functionally central (as measured by their patterns of expression and protein interaction) and more evolutionarily constrained than non-cancer genetic disease genes. We then compare genes that are only modified somatically in canc

SUBMITTER: Ostrow SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4898816 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature