By assessing the incidence of a particular mutation or the frequency at which certain genes / pathways are altered across multiple patients (of the same tumor type), it should be possible to identify key mutations. (massgenomics.org)
«When most people think about cancer genetics, they think about single key mutations that foster tumor formation — very specific things like the BRCA genes,» said Joe R. Delaney, PhD, a fellow in the Clinical Translation program at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and lead author of the paper published February 15 in Nature Communications. (sciencedaily.com)
By looking at genetic similarities and estimating how long it would take for key mutations to pop up, the researchers assembled a family tree with rough dates. (sciencemag.org)