Description
Cancer is often classified according to the anatomic site at which it occurs, and researchers are taught these cancer types are actually a spectrum of diseases. A review in 2000 (Hanahan and Weinberg; Cell 2000 100:57-70) reported that all cancers share six characteristics: (1) self-sufficiency in growth signalling, (2) the ability to ignore external anti-growth signals, (3) the ability to avoid apoptosis, (4) sustained angiogenesis, (5) the capacity for limitless reproduction and (6) the ability to invade tissue and spread to other anatomic sites.
Current research is attempting to identify related cancer types using different observational strategies. One study created software that uses text-mining of online information about genes and disease. A second study examined medical records for patients in British Columbia who were diagnosed with multiple cancer types during a 35-year period. A third study examined the correlation between Canadian provincial cancer rates and other outcomes. Several pairs of related cancer types can be identified using each method. Other methods are possible. If cancer types are related, patients with one cancer might increase surveillance for other related cancer types, and drugs that are effective for treating one cancer might be successfully adapted for the related cancer types.
Recent Publications
Bajdik CD, Kuo B, Rusaw S et al (2005); CGMIM: automated text-mining of Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) to identify genetically-associated cancers and candidate genes. BMC Bioinformatics 6:78
Bajdik CD, Abanto ZU, Spinelli JJ et al (2006); Identifying related cancer types based on their incidence among people with multiple cancers. Emerging Themes in Epidemiology 3:17
Bajdik CD, Abanto Z, Spinelli JJ et al (2008) Identifying related cancers. In Computational Biology: New Research. Nova Publishers. Accepted May 6, 2008
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