Robert A Gatenby, Kimberly A Luddy, Jamie K Teer, Anders Berglund, Audrey R Freischel, Ryan M Carr, Amanda E Lam, Kenneth J Pienta, Sarah R Amend, Robert H Austin, Emma U Hammarlund, John L Cleveland, Kenneth Y Tsai, Joel S Brown
Somatic evolution selects cancer cell phenotypes that maximize survival and proliferation in dynamic environments. Although cancer cells are molecularly heterogeneous, we hypothesized convergent adaptive strategies to common host selection forces can be inferred from patterns of epigenetic and genetic evolutionary selection in similar tumors. We systematically investigated gene mutations and expression changes in lung adenocarcinomas with no common driver genes (n = 313). Although 13,461 genes were mutated in at least one sample, only 376 non-synonymous mutations evidenced positive evolutionary selection with conservation of 224 genes, while 1736 and 2430 genes exhibited ≥ two-fold increased and ≥ 50% decreased expression, respectively...
May 5, 2024: Medical Oncology