title: Toward understanding and exploiting tumor heterogeneity.
abstract: The extent of tumor heterogeneity is an emerging theme that researchers are only beginning to understand. How genetic and epigenetic heterogeneity affects tumor evolution and clinical progression is unknown. The precise nature of the environmental factors that influence this heterogeneity is also yet to be characterized. Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology and the Volkswagen Foundation organized a meeting focused on identifying the obstacles that need to be overcome to advance translational research in and tumor heterogeneity. Once these key questions were established, the attendees devised potential solutions. Their ideas are presented here.
authors.affiliation: 1] Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA. [2] Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA. [3] Cancer Institute, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
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authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alizadeh
authors.affiliation: Nature Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
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authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Oncology, University of Torino, Candiolo, Torino, Italy. [2] Candiolo Cancer Institute-Fondazione del Piemonte per l'Oncologia (FPO), IRCCS, Candiolo, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
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authors.lastname: Bardelli
authors.affiliation: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
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authors.affiliation: 1] CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria. [2] Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
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authors.lastname: Bock
authors.affiliation: Nature Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA. [2] Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA. [3] Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Nature Biotechnology, New York, New York, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
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authors.affiliation: MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison-MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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authors.affiliation: Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Korbel
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Research Center, DKFZ, Heidelberg, Germany.
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authors.lastname: Lichter
authors.affiliation: Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher E
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authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Genetics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA. [2] Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas
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authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA. [2] Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Dana
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authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Kornelia
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authors.lastname: Polyak
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Charles W M
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Lillian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Siu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Alexandra
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authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.affiliation: Nature Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Hannah
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authors.lastname: Stower
authors.affiliation: 1] University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK. [2] University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK. [3] The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
authors.forename: Charles
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authors.lastname: Swanton
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA. [2] Department of Genomic Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Roel G W
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Verhaak
authors.affiliation: The Cancer Genome Atlas, Center for Cancer Genomics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Jean C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Zenklusen
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Vienna, Austria.
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authors.lastname: Zuber
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mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D057890:Epigenomics; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment