Scientists find many gene ‘drivers’ of cancer, but warn: Don’t ignore ‘passengers’

[D.ap]

“A massive analysis of the entire genomes of 2,658 people with 39 different types of cancer has identified mutations in 179 genes and gene regulators as “drivers” — variations in DNA sequences that lead to the development of cancer.

The work is part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) project, one of the most comprehensive cancer genomics studies to date, involving scientists from 17 countries and more than 30 papers, including several by Yale faculty published in multiple journals earlier this month.

While drivers accounted for a large percentage of the cancer cases analyzed, they did not explain all. Some scientists, including Yale’s Mark Gerstein, now believe that to capture a more panoramic view of cancer progression, they need to pay more attention not only to classical genetic drivers but also to “passengers” — the thousands of non-driver mutations that constitute the overwhelming majority of mutations observed in a typical cancer genome. Historically, scientific consensus has held that these play no role in tumor growth.

“Many of these mutations can have small individual effects but an appreciable cumulative effect, on cancer development,” said Gerstein, the Albert L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics; professor of molecular biophysics & biochemistry, of computer science, and of statistics & data science; and senior author of a paper in Cell published Feb. 20 that outlines the role of passengers in cancer development.“

https://news.yale.edu/2020/02/20/scient ... passengers