title: Thermodynamic measures of cancer: Gibbs free energy and entropy of protein-protein interactions.
abstract: Thermodynamics is an important driving factor for chemical processes and for life. Earlier work has shown that each cancer has its own molecular signaling network that supports its life cycle and that different cancers have different thermodynamic entropies characterizing their signaling networks. The respective thermodynamic entropies correlate with 5-year survival for each cancer. We now show that by overlaying mRNA transcription data from a specific tumor type onto a human protein-protein interaction network, we can derive the Gibbs free energy for the specific cancer. The Gibbs free energy correlates with 5-year survival (Pearson correlation of -0.7181, p value of 0.0294). Using an expression relating entropy and Gibbs free energy to enthalpy, we derive an empirical relation for cancer network enthalpy. Combining this with previously published results, we now show a complete set of extensive thermodynamic properties and cancer type with 5-year survival.
authors.affiliation: Information and Computer Science Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
authors.forename: Edward A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Rietman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Department of Biostatistics, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Platig
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 1Z2, Canada. jtus@phys.ualberta.ca.|Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E1, Canada. jtus@phys.ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: Jack A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Tuszynski
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.|Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.|Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, 02111, USA.
authors.forename: Giannoula
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lakka Klement
mesh_terms: D019277:Entropy; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011336:Probability; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D009363:Neoplasm Proteins
keywords: 5-year survival; Cancer; Entropy; Gibbs free energy; Protein-protein interactions; Signaling networks