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Cancer genomics

Tracking cancer evolution

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 18, page 391 (2017)Cite this article

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NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer and has a very poor prognosis. The low survival rate could be due to intratumour heterogeneity (the presence of subclonal populations within a tumour that exhibit genetic and phenotypic variation), which is frequently associated with cancer evolution and the development of drug resistance.

Abbosh et al. investigated ctDNA present in the blood of 100 patients participating in the Cancer Research UK-funded TRACERx (TRAcking non-small-cell lung Cancer Evolution through therapy (Rx)) study, which monitors the evolution of NSCLC from diagnosis through to death. Liquid biopsies, which are obtained using a minimally invasive procedure, have previously been shown to identify the presence of residual cancer tissue in patients with breast or colorectal cancer.

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References

  1. Abbosh, C. et al. Phylogenetic ctDNA analysis depicts early stage lung cancer evolution. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature22364 (2017)

  2. Jamal-Hanjani, M. et al. Tracking the evolution of non–small-cell lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1616288 (2017)

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  1. Associate Editor, Nature Communications,

    Carolina Perdigoto

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  1. Carolina Perdigoto
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Schwartz, R. & Schäffer, A. A. The evolution of tumour phylogenetics: principles and practice. Nat. Rev. Genet. 18, 213–229 (2017)

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Perdigoto, C. Tracking cancer evolution. Nat Rev Genet 18, 391 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg.2017.43

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