Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
Phys Biol. 2013 Oct;10(5):056006. doi: 10.1088/1478-3975/10/5/056006. Epub 2013 Oct 3.
We calculate measures of hierarchy in gene and tissue networks of breast cancer patients. We find that the likelihood of metastasis in the future is correlated with increased values of network hierarchy for expression networks of cancer-associated genes, due to the correlated expression of cancer-specific pathways. Conversely, future metastasis and quick relapse times are negatively correlated with the values of network hierarchy in the expression network of all genes, due to the dedifferentiation of gene pathways and circuits. These results suggest that the hierarchy of gene expression may be useful as an additional biomarker for breast cancer prognosis.
我们计算了乳腺癌患者基因和组织网络中的层次结构度量。我们发现,由于癌症相关基因表达网络中特定途径的相关表达,未来发生转移的可能性与网络层次结构的增加呈正相关。相反,由于基因途径和回路的去分化,未来转移和快速复发时间与所有基因表达网络中网络层次结构的值呈负相关。这些结果表明,基因表达的层次结构可能是乳腺癌预后的一个有用的附加生物标志物。