Tag : Mutations

Washington: Scientists have built a computer model that can rapidly scan the entire genome of cancer cells and identify mutations that occur more frequently than expected, suggesting that they are driving tumour growth. The findings were a according to a new study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. Distinguishing these harmful driver mutations from the neutral passengers could help researchers identify better drug targets. To boost those efforts, an MIT-led team has built a new computer model that can rapidly scan the entire genome of cancer cells and identify mutations that occur more frequently than expected, suggesting that they are driving tumor growth. This type of prediction has been challenging because some genomic regions have an extremely high frequency of passenger mutations, drowning out the signal of actual drivers "We created a probabilistic, deep-learning method that allowed us to get a really accurate model of the number of passenger mutations that should exist anywhere in the genome," says Maxwell Sherman, an MIT graduate student. "Then we can look all across the genome for regions where you have an unexpected accumulation of mutations, which suggests that those are driver mutations." In their new study, the researchers found additional mutations across the genome that appear to contribute to tumor growth in 5 to 10 per cent of cancer patients. The findings could help doctors to identify drugs that would have greater chance of successfully treating those patients, the researchers say. Currently, at least 30 per cent of cancer patients have no detectable driver mutation that can be used to guide treatment. Sh ...