Cancer as the Disintegration of Robustness: Population-Level Variance in Gene Expression Identifies Key Differences Between Tobacco- and HPV-Associated Oropharyngeal Carcinogenesis.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma is associated both with tobacco use and with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. It is argued that carcinogen-driven tumorigenesis is a distinct disease from its virally driven counterpart. We hypothesized that tumorigenesis is the result of a loss of genotypic robustness resulting in an increase in phenotypic variation in tumors compared with adjacent histologically normal tissues, and that carcinogen-driven tumorigenesis results in greater variation than its virally driven counterpart.

Objectives

To examine the loss of robustness in carcinogen-driven and virally driven oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma samples, and to identify potential pathways involved.

Design

We used coefficients of variation for messenger RNA a

SUBMITTER: Ben-Dayan MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5695554 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature