Phylooncogenomics: Examining the cancer genome in the context of vertebrate evolution()

Currently, human cancer genomics is making great progress, and many mutations of new cancer driver genes have been detected at an unprecedented rate in a variety of human cancers. Many details of the genetic alterations in cancer cell genomes have been revealed by the massively parallel sequencing. Long-lasting aneuploidy caused large-scale somatic copy number alterations remains a difficulty as there are too many genes located on such big chromosomal fragments, and this cannot simply be solved by increasing sequencing depth and tumor sample numbers. Comparative oncogenomics may provide us with a solution to this problem. Here, we review some of the common animal cancer models and propose to analyze cancer cell genomics in vertebrate phylogenetic backgrounds. Thus phylooncogenomics may provide us with a unique perspective on he nature of cancer biology unattainable by single species studies.