Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.

Discovery of cancer driver pathways is essential for targeted therapies, since these pathways govern tumor progression and treatment resistance. However, their context-specific patterns across populations remain poorly understood. Leveraging pan-cancer genomic data, we apply our two models, EntCDP a...

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Main Authors: Wenjia Zhou, Junhua Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-08-01
Series:PLoS Computational Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013349
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author Wenjia Zhou
Junhua Zhang
author_facet Wenjia Zhou
Junhua Zhang
author_sort Wenjia Zhou
collection DOAJ
description Discovery of cancer driver pathways is essential for targeted therapies, since these pathways govern tumor progression and treatment resistance. However, their context-specific patterns across populations remain poorly understood. Leveraging pan-cancer genomic data, we apply our two models, EntCDP and ModSDP, to perform stratified analyses from four perspectives: region, tumor type, age group, and risk factors. Our results reveal the regional biases in perturbed pathways, such as PI3K-Akt in Chinese patients and GPCR in American patients with bladder cancer. Subtype comparisons highlight the mTOR signaling in lung adenocarcinoma and the FoxO signaling in lung squamous cell carcinoma. Pediatric-adult comparisons emphasize the enrichment of Ras signaling in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia and PAK signaling in pediatric glioblastoma, respectively. Risk factor associations further link Notch-mediated pathways to alcohol consumption and CDKN-regulated pathways to obesity-related cancers. Our findings demonstrate the utility of stratified driver pathway analysis in uncovering common and specific mechanisms, which can help prioritize context-aware therapeutic targets.
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spelling doaj-art-849852f23d874f6d8acbe0d55fc2b1e92025-08-23T05:31:15ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582025-08-01218e101334910.1371/journal.pcbi.1013349Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.Wenjia ZhouJunhua ZhangDiscovery of cancer driver pathways is essential for targeted therapies, since these pathways govern tumor progression and treatment resistance. However, their context-specific patterns across populations remain poorly understood. Leveraging pan-cancer genomic data, we apply our two models, EntCDP and ModSDP, to perform stratified analyses from four perspectives: region, tumor type, age group, and risk factors. Our results reveal the regional biases in perturbed pathways, such as PI3K-Akt in Chinese patients and GPCR in American patients with bladder cancer. Subtype comparisons highlight the mTOR signaling in lung adenocarcinoma and the FoxO signaling in lung squamous cell carcinoma. Pediatric-adult comparisons emphasize the enrichment of Ras signaling in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia and PAK signaling in pediatric glioblastoma, respectively. Risk factor associations further link Notch-mediated pathways to alcohol consumption and CDKN-regulated pathways to obesity-related cancers. Our findings demonstrate the utility of stratified driver pathway analysis in uncovering common and specific mechanisms, which can help prioritize context-aware therapeutic targets.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013349
spellingShingle Wenjia Zhou
Junhua Zhang
Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.
PLoS Computational Biology
title Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.
title_full Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.
title_fullStr Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.
title_full_unstemmed Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.
title_short Multi-context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types.
title_sort multi context modeling of driver pathways reveals common and specific mechanisms across 23 cancer types
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013349
work_keys_str_mv AT wenjiazhou multicontextmodelingofdriverpathwaysrevealscommonandspecificmechanismsacross23cancertypes
AT junhuazhang multicontextmodelingofdriverpathwaysrevealscommonandspecificmechanismsacross23cancertypes