Population Genetics of Neoplasms

Cancer is a complex disease of the genome that arises from the interplay of numerous underlying biological processes occurring within and between cells. Cancer population genetics aims at investigating malignant dynamics by studying the distribution of somatic alterations in cancer cell populations. Such aberrant DNA modifi cations lead to the development of cellular malignant traits like cancer invasion, metastasis and therapy resistance. The study of population genetics in neoplasms integrates mathematical modeling of evolving populations with molecular and epidemiological cancer data. The goal is to infer fundamental properties of tumors and predict the progression of the disease. With the ever-growing amount of data produced by genomic techniques, cancer population genetics represents a quantitative tool to begin making sense to this massive amount of information.