» Articles » PMID: 34944932

Can Systems Biology Advance Clinical Precision Oncology?

Overview
Journal Cancers (Basel)
Publisher MDPI
Specialty Oncology
Date 2021 Dec 24
PMID 34944932
Citations 7
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Precision oncology is perceived as a way forward to treat individual cancer patients. However, knowing particular cancer mutations is not enough for optimal therapeutic treatment, because cancer genotype-phenotype relationships are nonlinear and dynamic. Systems biology studies the biological processes at the systems' level, using an array of techniques, ranging from statistical methods to network reconstruction and analysis, to mathematical modeling. Its goal is to reconstruct the complex and often counterintuitive dynamic behavior of biological systems and quantitatively predict their responses to environmental perturbations. In this paper, we review the impact of systems biology on precision oncology. We show examples of how the analysis of signal transduction networks allows to dissect resistance to targeted therapies and inform the choice of combinations of targeted drugs based on tumor molecular alterations. Patient-specific biomarkers based on dynamical models of signaling networks can have a greater prognostic value than conventional biomarkers. These examples support systems biology models as valuable tools to advance clinical and translational oncological research.

Citing Articles

Digital Cancer Care and the Vision for Transforming the Quality of Care.

Nelson H, Chan K, Palis B J Registry Manag. 2025; 51(3):104-108.

PMID: 39897604 PMC: 11781280.


Pharmacological approaches to understanding protein kinase signaling networks.

Stephenson E, Higgins J Front Pharmacol. 2024; 14:1310135.

PMID: 38164473 PMC: 10757940. DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1310135.


Systems Biology and Cytokines Potential Role in Lung Cancer Immunotherapy Targeting Autophagic Axis.

Khilwani R, Singh S Biomedicines. 2023; 11(10).

PMID: 37893079 PMC: 10604646. DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11102706.


Treatment of evolving cancers will require dynamic decision support.

Strobl M, Gallaher J, Robertson-Tessi M, West J, Anderson A Ann Oncol. 2023; 34(10):867-884.

PMID: 37777307 PMC: 10688269. DOI: 10.1016/j.annonc.2023.08.008.


Clinical Network Systems Biology: Traversing the Cancer Multiverse.

Mambetsariev I, Fricke J, Gruber S, Tan T, Babikian R, Kim P J Clin Med. 2023; 12(13).

PMID: 37445570 PMC: 10342467. DOI: 10.3390/jcm12134535.


References
1.
Brackston R, Lakatos E, Stumpf M . Transition state characteristics during cell differentiation. PLoS Comput Biol. 2018; 14(9):e1006405. PMC: 6168170. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006405. View

2.
Molinelli E, Korkut A, Wang W, Miller M, Gauthier N, Jing X . Perturbation biology: inferring signaling networks in cellular systems. PLoS Comput Biol. 2013; 9(12):e1003290. PMC: 3868523. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003290. View

3.
Villaverde A, Banga J . Reverse engineering and identification in systems biology: strategies, perspectives and challenges. J R Soc Interface. 2013; 11(91):20130505. PMC: 3869153. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2013.0505. View

4.
Lawrence M, Stojanov P, Polak P, Kryukov G, Cibulskis K, Sivachenko A . Mutational heterogeneity in cancer and the search for new cancer-associated genes. Nature. 2013; 499(7457):214-218. PMC: 3919509. DOI: 10.1038/nature12213. View

5.
Ciardiello F, Arnold D, Casali P, Cervantes A, Douillard J, Eggermont A . Delivering precision medicine in oncology today and in future-the promise and challenges of personalised cancer medicine: a position paper by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Ann Oncol. 2014; 25(9):1673-1678. DOI: 10.1093/annonc/mdu217. View