Breast Cancer. Biological concepts. Life Sciences Essay

Name:
Course Code:
Date:
Journal Summary
Summary
The authors discuss the possibilities that could lead to new approaches to diagnosing and treating cancer using data. Cancer is genetic and stems from accumulation of genomic alterations where germline variations predispose individuals to cancer and somatic alterations initiate and trigger the progression of cancer. This very nature of cancer prompted researchers and scientists to approach cancer from a new perspective by collecting data to identify the factors for predisposition and the best strategies to defeat cancer. The authors explored some of the benefits of sharing data, especially on breast cancer with other researchers and scientists using published researches on some aspects of cancer research. In a study of common variants, common disease on identifying the factors for predisposition of cancer, the authors pointed out the success stemmed from collaborative sharing of related data. They concluded that BRCA1 and BRCA 2 are known cancer susceptibility genes for hereditary breast-ovarian cancers, but they only explain a fraction of the heritability factor of human cancers. There is need to uncover more genetic alterations that are associated with breast cancer for better and earlier diagnosis and better treatment approaches. In an example that the authors have pointed out and summarized the results, the shared information through an international consortium led to the conclusion that women in the highest 1% of the distribution have a 3.5-fold greater risk of breast cancer compared to population average. Such a risk model could help in early detection and implementation of subsequent preventive measures. Conversely, the authors have used another example of how lack of enough ‘omics’ data could not help identify variance that surpassed the geno-wide significance threshold in a pharmacogenomics studies to identify germline variations for the prediction of drug response and drug‐induced adverse events.
They have highlighted several studies whose success of lack of it thereof was hinged in data sharing. The authors of this article attempted to deduce research-based conclusions on the development of these efforts in relation to breast cancer and highlight how the success or lack of it thereof was depended on data. Their review of existing literature established that identification of genomic alterations and use of genomic information in clinical trials can be used to create cancer precision medicine. The article calls to the larger cancer research community that is devoted to finding ways ...