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Li J, Tian J, Liu Y, Liu Z, Tong M. Personalized analysis of human cancer multi-omics for precision oncology. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2024; 23:2049-2056. [PMID: 38783900 PMCID: PMC11112262 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2024.05.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2024] [Revised: 04/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Multi-omics technologies, encompassing genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics, provide profound insights into cancer biology. A fundamental computational approach for analyzing multi-omics data is differential analysis, which identifies molecular distinctions between cancerous and normal tissues. Traditional methods, however, often fail to address the distinct heterogeneity of individual tumors, thereby neglecting crucial patient-specific molecular traits. This shortcoming underscores the necessity for tailored differential analysis algorithms, which focus on particular patient variations. Such approaches offer a more nuanced understanding of cancer biology and are instrumental in pinpointing personalized therapeutic strategies. In this review, we summarize the principles of current individualized techniques. We also review their efficacy in analyzing cancer multi-omics data and discuss their potential applications in clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China
- School of Informatics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 316000, China
| | - Jingyi Tian
- State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China
- School of Informatics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 316000, China
| | - Yachen Liu
- National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China
- School of Informatics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 316000, China
| | - Zan Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China
- National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China
- School of Informatics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 316000, China
| | - Mengsha Tong
- State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China
- National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China
- School of Informatics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 316000, China
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2
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Zhang T, Zhang SW, Xie MY, Li Y. Identifying cooperating cancer driver genes in individual patients through hypergraph random walk. J Biomed Inform 2024; 157:104710. [PMID: 39159864 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2024.104710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2024] [Revised: 07/30/2024] [Accepted: 08/14/2024] [Indexed: 08/21/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Identifying cancer driver genes, especially rare or patient-specific cancer driver genes, is a primary goal in cancer therapy. Although researchers have proposed some methods to tackle this problem, these methods mostly identify cancer driver genes at single gene level, overlooking the cooperative relationship among cancer driver genes. Identifying cooperating cancer driver genes in individual patients is pivotal for understanding cancer etiology and advancing the development of personalized therapies. METHODS Here, we propose a novel Personalized Cooperating cancer Driver Genes (PCoDG) method by using hypergraph random walk to identify the cancer driver genes that cooperatively drive individual patient cancer progression. By leveraging the powerful ability of hypergraph in representing multi-way relationships, PCoDG first employs the personalized hypergraph to depict the complex interactions among mutated genes and differentially expressed genes of an individual patient. Then, a hypergraph random walk algorithm based on hyperedge similarity is utilized to calculate the importance scores of mutated genes, integrating these scores with signaling pathway data to identify the cooperating cancer driver genes in individual patients. RESULTS The experimental results on three TCGA cancer datasets (i.e., BRCA, LUAD, and COADREAD) demonstrate the effectiveness of PCoDG in identifying personalized cooperating cancer driver genes. These genes identified by PCoDG not only offer valuable insights into patient stratification correlating with clinical outcomes, but also provide an useful reference resource for tailoring personalized treatments. CONCLUSION We propose a novel method that can effectively identify cooperating cancer driver genes for individual patients, thereby deepening our understanding of the cooperative relationship among personalized cancer driver genes and advancing the development of precision oncology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Information Fusion Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China; School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan 467000, China
| | - Shao-Wu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Information Fusion Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.
| | - Ming-Yu Xie
- Key Laboratory of Information Fusion Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
| | - Yan Li
- Key Laboratory of Information Fusion Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
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Wei PJ, Zhu AD, Cao R, Zheng C. Personalized Driver Gene Prediction Using Graph Convolutional Networks with Conditional Random Fields. BIOLOGY 2024; 13:184. [PMID: 38534453 DOI: 10.3390/biology13030184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Revised: 03/03/2024] [Accepted: 03/10/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Cancer is a complex and evolutionary disease mainly driven by the accumulation of genetic variations in genes. Identifying cancer driver genes is important. However, most related studies have focused on the population level. Cancer is a disease with high heterogeneity. Thus, the discovery of driver genes at the individual level is becoming more valuable but is a great challenge. Although there have been some computational methods proposed to tackle this challenge, few can cover all patient samples well, and there is still room for performance improvement. In this study, to identify individual-level driver genes more efficiently, we propose the PDGCN method. PDGCN integrates multiple types of data features, including mutation, expression, methylation, copy number data, and system-level gene features, along with network structural features extracted using Node2vec in order to construct a sample-gene interaction network. Prediction is performed using a graphical convolutional neural network model with a conditional random field layer, which is able to better combine the network structural features with biological attribute features. Experiments on the ACC (Adrenocortical Cancer) and KICH (Kidney Chromophobe) datasets from TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) demonstrated that the method performs better compared to other similar methods. It can identify not only frequently mutated driver genes, but also rare candidate driver genes and novel biomarker genes. The results of the survival and enrichment analyses of these detected genes demonstrate that the method can identify important driver genes at the individual level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pi-Jing Wei
- Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei 230601, China
| | - An-Dong Zhu
- Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei 230601, China
| | - Ruifen Cao
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Anhui University, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei 230601, China
| | - Chunhou Zheng
- School of Artificial Intelligence, Anhui University, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei 230601, China
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4
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Liu W, Wang H, Zhao Q, Tao C, Qu W, Hou Y, Huang R, Sun Z, Zhu G, Jiang X, Fang Y, Gao J, Wu X, Yang Z, Ping R, Chen J, Yang R, Chu T, Zhou J, Fan J, Tang Z, Yang D, Shi Y. Multiomics analysis reveals metabolic subtypes and identifies diacylglycerol kinase α (DGKA) as a potential therapeutic target for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Cancer Commun (Lond) 2024; 44:226-250. [PMID: 38143235 PMCID: PMC10876206 DOI: 10.1002/cac2.12513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Revised: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is a highly heterogeneous and lethal hepatobiliary tumor with few therapeutic strategies. The metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells plays an essential role in the development of tumors, while the metabolic molecular classification of iCCA is largely unknown. Here, we performed an integrated multiomics analysis and metabolic classification to depict differences in metabolic characteristics of iCCA patients, hoping to provide a novel perspective to understand and treat iCCA. METHODS We performed integrated multiomics analysis in 116 iCCA samples, including whole-exome sequencing, bulk RNA-sequencing and proteome analysis. Based on the non-negative matrix factorization method and the protein abundance of metabolic genes in human genome-scale metabolic models, the metabolic subtype of iCCA was determined. Survival and prognostic gene analyses were used to compare overall survival (OS) differences between metabolic subtypes. Cell proliferation analysis, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay, colony formation assay, RNA-sequencing and Western blotting were performed to investigate the molecular mechanisms of diacylglycerol kinase α (DGKA) in iCCA cells. RESULTS Three metabolic subtypes (S1-S3) with subtype-specific biomarkers of iCCA were identified. These metabolic subtypes presented with distinct prognoses, metabolic features, immune microenvironments, and genetic alterations. The S2 subtype with the worst survival showed the activation of some special metabolic processes, immune-suppressed microenvironment and Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS)/AT-rich interactive domain 1A (ARID1A) mutations. Among the S2 subtype-specific upregulated proteins, DGKA was further identified as a potential drug target for iCCA, which promoted cell proliferation by enhancing phosphatidic acid (PA) metabolism and activating mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. CONCLUSION Via multiomics analyses, we identified three metabolic subtypes of iCCA, revealing that the S2 subtype exhibited the poorest survival outcomes. We further identified DGKA as a potential target for the S2 subtype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weiren Liu
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Huqiang Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of LifeomicsBeijingP. R. China
| | - Qianfu Zhao
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Chenyang Tao
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Weifeng Qu
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Yushan Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of LifeomicsBeijingP. R. China
| | - Run Huang
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Zimei Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of LifeomicsBeijingP. R. China
| | - Guiqi Zhu
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Xifei Jiang
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Yuan Fang
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Jun Gao
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Xiaoling Wu
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Zhixiang Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of LifeomicsBeijingP. R. China
| | - Rongyu Ping
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of LifeomicsBeijingP. R. China
| | - Jiafeng Chen
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Rui Yang
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Tianhao Chu
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Jian Zhou
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Jia Fan
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Zheng Tang
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
| | - Dong Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of LifeomicsBeijingP. R. China
| | - Yinghong Shi
- Department of Liver Surgery and TransplantationLiver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan HospitalFudan UniversityKey Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of Ministry of EducationShanghaiP. R. China
- Research Unit of Liver cancer Recurrence and Metastasis, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijingP. R. China
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Nourbakhsh M, Degn K, Saksager A, Tiberti M, Papaleo E. Prediction of cancer driver genes and mutations: the potential of integrative computational frameworks. Brief Bioinform 2024; 25:bbad519. [PMID: 38261338 PMCID: PMC10805075 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 11/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
The vast amount of available sequencing data allows the scientific community to explore different genetic alterations that may drive cancer or favor cancer progression. Software developers have proposed a myriad of predictive tools, allowing researchers and clinicians to compare and prioritize driver genes and mutations and their relative pathogenicity. However, there is little consensus on the computational approach or a golden standard for comparison. Hence, benchmarking the different tools depends highly on the input data, indicating that overfitting is still a massive problem. One of the solutions is to limit the scope and usage of specific tools. However, such limitations force researchers to walk on a tightrope between creating and using high-quality tools for a specific purpose and describing the complex alterations driving cancer. While the knowledge of cancer development increases daily, many bioinformatic pipelines rely on single nucleotide variants or alterations in a vacuum without accounting for cellular compartments, mutational burden or disease progression. Even within bioinformatics and computational cancer biology, the research fields work in silos, risking overlooking potential synergies or breakthroughs. Here, we provide an overview of databases and datasets for building or testing predictive cancer driver tools. Furthermore, we introduce predictive tools for driver genes, driver mutations, and the impact of these based on structural analysis. Additionally, we suggest and recommend directions in the field to avoid silo-research, moving towards integrative frameworks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mona Nourbakhsh
- Cancer Systems Biology, Section for Bioinformatics, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Kristine Degn
- Cancer Systems Biology, Section for Bioinformatics, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Astrid Saksager
- Cancer Systems Biology, Section for Bioinformatics, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Matteo Tiberti
- Cancer Structural Biology, Danish Cancer Institute, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Elena Papaleo
- Cancer Systems Biology, Section for Bioinformatics, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
- Cancer Structural Biology, Danish Cancer Institute, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
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Yang Z, Zhou D, Huang J. Identifying Explainable Machine Learning Models and a Novel SFRP2 + Fibroblast Signature as Predictors for Precision Medicine in Ovarian Cancer. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:16942. [PMID: 38069266 PMCID: PMC10706905 DOI: 10.3390/ijms242316942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2023] [Revised: 11/24/2023] [Accepted: 11/26/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Ovarian cancer (OC) is a type of malignant tumor with a consistently high mortality rate. The diagnosis of early-stage OC and identification of functional subsets in the tumor microenvironment are essential to the development of patient management strategies. However, the development of robust models remains unsatisfactory. We aimed to utilize artificial intelligence and single-cell analysis to address this issue. Two independent datasets were screened from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and processed to obtain overlapping differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in stage II-IV vs. stage I diseases. Three explainable machine learning algorithms were integrated to construct models that could determine the tumor stage and extract important characteristic genes as diagnostic biomarkers. Correlations between cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) infiltration and characteristic gene expression were analyzed using TIMER2.0 and their relationship with survival rates was comprehensively explored via the Kaplan-Meier plotter (KM-plotter) online database. The specific expression of characteristic genes in fibroblast subsets was investigated through single-cell analysis. A novel fibroblast subset signature was explored to predict immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) response and oncogene mutation through Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) and artificial neural network algorithms, respectively. We found that Support Vector Machine-Shapley Additive Explanations (SVM-SHAP), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Random Forest (RF) successfully diagnosed early-stage OC (stage I). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of these models exceeded 0.990. Their overlapping characteristic gene, secreted frizzled-related protein 2 (SFRP2), was a risk factor that affected the overall survival of OC patients with stage II-IV disease (log-rank test: p < 0.01) and was specifically expressed in a fibroblast subset. Finally, the SFRP2+ fibroblast signature served as a novel predictor in evaluating ICI response and exploring pan-cancer tumor protein P53 (TP53) mutation (AUC = 0.853, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.829-0.877). In conclusion, the models based on SVM-SHAP, XGBoost, and RF enabled the early detection of OC for clinical decision making, and SFRP2+ fibroblast signature used in diagnostic models can inform OC treatment selection and offer pan-cancer TP53 mutation detection.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jun Huang
- School of Life Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
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Gillman R, Field MA, Schmitz U, Karamatic R, Hebbard L. Identifying cancer driver genes in individual tumours. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2023; 21:5028-5038. [PMID: 37867967 PMCID: PMC10589724 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2023.10.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Cancer is a heterogeneous disease with a strong genetic component making it suitable for precision medicine approaches aimed at identifying the underlying molecular drivers within a tumour. Large scale population-level cancer sequencing consortia have identified many actionable mutations common across both cancer types and sub-types, resulting in an increasing number of successful precision medicine programs. Nonetheless, such approaches fail to consider the effects of mutations unique to an individual patient and may miss rare driver mutations, necessitating personalised approaches to driver-gene prioritisation. One approach is to quantify the functional importance of individual mutations in a single tumour based on how they affect the expression of genes in a gene interaction network (GIN). These GIN-based approaches can be broadly divided into those that utilise an existing reference GIN and those that construct de novo patient-specific GINs. These single-tumour approaches have several limitations that likely influence their results, such as use of reference cohort data, network choice, and approaches to mathematical approximation, and more research is required to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo applicability of their predictions. This review examines the current state of the art methods that identify driver genes in single tumours with a focus on GIN-based driver prioritisation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rhys Gillman
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular and Cell Biology, College of Public Health, Medical, and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
| | - Matt A. Field
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular and Cell Biology, College of Public Health, Medical, and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Immunogenomics Lab, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
- Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - Ulf Schmitz
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular and Cell Biology, College of Public Health, Medical, and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
| | - Rozemary Karamatic
- Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Townsville University Hospital, PO Box 670, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia
- College of Medicine and Dentistry, Division of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
| | - Lionel Hebbard
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular and Cell Biology, College of Public Health, Medical, and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Storr Liver Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead Hospital and University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Australian Institute for Tropical Health and Medicine, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
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8
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Cui Y, Wang Z, Wang X, Zhang Y, Zhang Y, Pan T, Zhang Z, Li S, Guo Y, Akutsu T, Song J. SMG: self-supervised masked graph learning for cancer gene identification. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbad406. [PMID: 37950905 PMCID: PMC10639095 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 11/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Cancer genomics is dedicated to elucidating the genes and pathways that contribute to cancer progression and development. Identifying cancer genes (CGs) associated with the initiation and progression of cancer is critical for characterization of molecular-level mechanism in cancer research. In recent years, the growing availability of high-throughput molecular data and advancements in deep learning technologies has enabled the modelling of complex interactions and topological information within genomic data. Nevertheless, because of the limited labelled data, pinpointing CGs from a multitude of potential mutations remains an exceptionally challenging task. To address this, we propose a novel deep learning framework, termed self-supervised masked graph learning (SMG), which comprises SMG reconstruction (pretext task) and task-specific fine-tuning (downstream task). In the pretext task, the nodes of multi-omic featured protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks are randomly substituted with a defined mask token. The PPI networks are then reconstructed using the graph neural network (GNN)-based autoencoder, which explores the node correlations in a self-prediction manner. In the downstream tasks, the pre-trained GNN encoder embeds the input networks into feature graphs, whereas a task-specific layer proceeds with the final prediction. To assess the performance of the proposed SMG method, benchmarking experiments are performed on three node-level tasks (identification of CGs, essential genes and healthy driver genes) and one graph-level task (identification of disease subnetwork) across eight PPI networks. Benchmarking experiments and performance comparison with existing state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the superiority of SMG on multi-omic feature engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan Cui
- Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Zhikang Wang
- Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Xiaoyu Wang
- Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Yiwen Zhang
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
| | - Ying Zhang
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 200 Xiaolingwei, Nanjing, 210094, China
| | - Tong Pan
- Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
| | | | - Shanshan Li
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
| | - Yuming Guo
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
| | - Tatsuya Akutsu
- Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Jiangning Song
- Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
- Monash Data Futures Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
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Somatic variation in normal tissues: friend or foe of cancer early detection? Ann Oncol 2022; 33:1239-1249. [PMID: 36162751 DOI: 10.1016/j.annonc.2022.09.156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2022] [Revised: 09/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Seemingly normal tissues progressively become populated by mutant clones over time. Most of these clones bear mutations in well-known cancer genes but only rarely do they transform into cancer. This poses questions on what triggers cancer initiation and what implications somatic variation has for cancer early detection. DESIGN We analysed recent mutational screens of healthy and cancer-free diseased tissues to compare somatic drivers and the causes of somatic variation across tissues. We then reviewed the mechanisms of clonal expansion and their relationships with age and diseases other than cancer. We finally discussed the relevance of somatic variation for cancer initiation and how it can help or hinder cancer detection and prevention. RESULTS The extent of somatic variation is highly variable across tissues and depends on intrinsic features, such as tissue architecture and turnover, as well as the exposure to endogenous and exogenous insults. Most somatic mutations driving clonal expansion are tissue-specific and inactivate tumor suppressor genes involved in chromatin modification and cell growth signaling. Some of these genes are more frequently mutated in normal tissues than cancer, indicating a context-dependent cancer promoting or protective role. Mutant clones can persist over a long time or disappear rapidly, suggesting that their fitness depends on the dynamic equilibrium with the environment. The disruption of this equilibrium is likely responsible for their transformation into malignant clones and knowing what triggers this process is key for cancer prevention and early detection. Somatic variation should be considered in liquid biopsy, where it may contribute cancer-independent mutations, and in the identification of cancer drivers, since not all mutated genes favoring clonal expansion also drive tumorigenesis. CONCLUSIONS Somatic variation and the factors governing homeostasis of normal tissues should be taken into account when devising strategies for cancer prevention and early detection.
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10
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Chen Z, Lu Y, Cao B, Zhang W, Edwards A, Zhang K. Driver gene detection through Bayesian network integration of mutation and expression profiles. Bioinformatics 2022; 38:2781-2790. [PMID: 35561191 PMCID: PMC9113331 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 03/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION The identification of mutated driver genes and the corresponding pathways is one of the primary goals in understanding tumorigenesis at the patient level. Integration of multi-dimensional genomic data from existing repositories, e.g., The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), offers an effective way to tackle this issue. In this study, we aimed to leverage the complementary genomic information of individuals and create an integrative framework to identify cancer-related driver genes. Specifically, based on pinpointed differentially expressed genes, variants in somatic mutations and a gene interaction network, we proposed an unsupervised Bayesian network integration (BNI) method to detect driver genes and estimate the disease propagation at the patient and/or cohort levels. This new method first captures inherent structural information to construct a functional gene mutation network and then extracts the driver genes and their controlled downstream modules using the minimum cover subset method. RESULTS Using other credible sources (e.g. Cancer Gene Census and Network of Cancer Genes), we validated the driver genes predicted by the BNI method in three TCGA pan-cancer cohorts. The proposed method provides an effective approach to address tumor heterogeneity faced by personalized medicine. The pinpointed drivers warrant further wet laboratory validation. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The supplementary tables and source code can be obtained from https://xavieruniversityoflouisiana.sharefile.com/d-se6df2c8d0ebe4800a3030311efddafe5. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhong Chen
- Department of Computer Science, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
- Bioinformatics Core of Xavier RCMI Center for Cancer Research, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
| | - You Lu
- Department of Computer Science, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
- Bioinformatics Core of Xavier RCMI Center for Cancer Research, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
| | - Bo Cao
- Division of Basic and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
| | - Wensheng Zhang
- Department of Computer Science, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
- Bioinformatics Core of Xavier RCMI Center for Cancer Research, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
| | - Andrea Edwards
- Department of Computer Science, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA
| | - Kun Zhang
- To whom correspondence should be addressed
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11
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Gunady EF, Ware KE, Hoskinson Plumlee S, Devos N, Corcoran D, Prinz J, Misetic H, Ciccarelli FD, Harrison TM, Thorne JL, Schopler R, Everitt JI, Eward WC, Somarelli JA. Exome sequencing of hepatocellular carcinoma in lemurs identifies potential cancer drivers: A pilot study. Evol Med Public Health 2022; 10:221-230. [PMID: 35557512 PMCID: PMC9086584 DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2021] [Accepted: 04/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and objectives Hepatocellular carcinoma occurs frequently in prosimians, but the cause of these liver cancers in this group is unknown. Characterizing the genetic changes associated with hepatocellular carcinoma in prosimians may point to possible causes, treatments and methods of prevention, aiding conservation efforts that are particularly crucial to the survival of endangered lemurs. Although genomic studies of cancer in non-human primates have been hampered by a lack of tools, recent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of using human exome capture reagents across primates. Methodology In this proof-of-principle study, we applied human exome capture reagents to tumor-normal pairs from five lemurs with hepatocellular carcinoma to characterize the mutational landscape of this disease in lemurs. Results Several genes implicated in human hepatocellular carcinoma, including ARID1A, TP53 and CTNNB1, were mutated in multiple lemurs, and analysis of cancer driver genes mutated in these samples identified enrichment of genes involved with TP53 degradation and regulation. In addition to these similarities with human hepatocellular carcinoma, we also noted unique features, including six genes that contain mutations in all five lemurs. Interestingly, these genes are infrequently mutated in human hepatocellular carcinoma, suggesting potential differences in the etiology and/or progression of this cancer in lemurs and humans. Conclusions and implications Collectively, this pilot study suggests that human exome capture reagents are a promising tool for genomic studies of cancer in lemurs and other non-human primates. Lay Summary Hepatocellular carcinoma occurs frequently in prosimians, but the cause of these liver cancers is unknown. In this proof-of-principle study, we applied human DNA sequencing tools to tumor-normal pairs from five lemurs with hepatocellular carcinoma and compared the lemur mutation profiles to those of human hepatocellular carcinomas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ella F Gunady
- Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Kathryn E Ware
- Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | | | - Nicolas Devos
- Duke Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - David Corcoran
- Duke Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Joseph Prinz
- Duke Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Hrvoje Misetic
- Cancer Systems Biology Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London NW1 1AT, UK
- School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 1UL, UK
| | - Francesca D Ciccarelli
- Cancer Systems Biology Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London NW1 1AT, UK
- School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 1UL, UK
| | - Tara M Harrison
- Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Raleigh, NC, USA
- Exotic Species Cancer Research Alliance, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Jeffrey L Thorne
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
- Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | | | - Jeffrey I Everitt
- Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
- Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - William C Eward
- Department of Orthopaedics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
- Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Jason A Somarelli
- Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
- Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, NC 27710, USA
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12
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Andrades R, Recamonde-Mendoza M. Machine learning methods for prediction of cancer driver genes: a survey paper. Brief Bioinform 2022; 23:6551145. [PMID: 35323900 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Revised: 02/06/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Identifying the genes and mutations that drive the emergence of tumors is a critical step to improving our understanding of cancer and identifying new directions for disease diagnosis and treatment. Despite the large volume of genomics data, the precise detection of driver mutations and their carrying genes, known as cancer driver genes, from the millions of possible somatic mutations remains a challenge. Computational methods play an increasingly important role in discovering genomic patterns associated with cancer drivers and developing predictive models to identify these elements. Machine learning (ML), including deep learning, has been the engine behind many of these efforts and provides excellent opportunities for tackling remaining gaps in the field. Thus, this survey aims to perform a comprehensive analysis of ML-based computational approaches to identify cancer driver mutations and genes, providing an integrated, panoramic view of the broad data and algorithmic landscape within this scientific problem. We discuss how the interactions among data types and ML algorithms have been explored in previous solutions and outline current analytical limitations that deserve further attention from the scientific community. We hope that by helping readers become more familiar with significant developments in the field brought by ML, we may inspire new researchers to address open problems and advance our knowledge towards cancer driver discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renan Andrades
- Institute of Informatics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil.,Bioinformatics Core, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil
| | - Mariana Recamonde-Mendoza
- Institute of Informatics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil.,Bioinformatics Core, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil
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13
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Dressler L, Bortolomeazzi M, Keddar MR, Misetic H, Sartini G, Acha-Sagredo A, Montorsi L, Wijewardhane N, Repana D, Nulsen J, Goldman J, Pollitt M, Davis P, Strange A, Ambrose K, Ciccarelli FD. Comparative assessment of genes driving cancer and somatic evolution in non-cancer tissues: an update of the Network of Cancer Genes (NCG) resource. Genome Biol 2022; 23:35. [PMID: 35078504 PMCID: PMC8790917 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-022-02607-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Genetic alterations of somatic cells can drive non-malignant clone formation and promote cancer initiation. However, the link between these processes remains unclear and hampers our understanding of tissue homeostasis and cancer development. Results Here, we collect a literature-based repertoire of 3355 well-known or predicted drivers of cancer and non-cancer somatic evolution in 122 cancer types and 12 non-cancer tissues. Mapping the alterations of these genes in 7953 pan-cancer samples reveals that, despite the large size, the known compendium of drivers is still incomplete and biased towards frequently occurring coding mutations. High overlap exists between drivers of cancer and non-cancer somatic evolution, although significant differences emerge in their recurrence. We confirm and expand the unique properties of drivers and identify a core of evolutionarily conserved and essential genes whose germline variation is strongly counter-selected. Somatic alteration in even one of these genes is sufficient to drive clonal expansion but not malignant transformation. Conclusions Our study offers a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of the genetic events initiating clone expansion and cancer revealing significant gaps and biases that still need to be addressed. The compendium of cancer and non-cancer somatic drivers, their literature support, and properties are accessible in the Network of Cancer Genes and Healthy Drivers resource at http://www.network-cancer-genes.org/. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13059-022-02607-z.
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Zeng J, Shufean MA. Molecular-based precision oncology clinical decision making augmented by artificial intelligence. Emerg Top Life Sci 2021; 5:757-764. [PMID: 34874054 PMCID: PMC8786281 DOI: 10.1042/etls20210220] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2021] [Revised: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
The rapid growth and decreasing cost of Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have made it possible to conduct routine large panel genomic sequencing in many disease settings, especially in the oncology domain. Furthermore, it is now known that optimal disease management of patients depends on individualized cancer treatment guided by comprehensive molecular testing. However, translating results from molecular sequencing reports into actionable clinical insights remains a challenge to most clinicians. In this review, we discuss about some representative systems that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate some processes of clinicians' decision making based upon molecular data, focusing on their application in precision oncology. Some limitations and pitfalls of the current application of AI in clinical decision making are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Zeng
- Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, U.S.A
| | - Md Abu Shufean
- Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, U.S.A
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