Cancer Bioinformatics

This volume covers a wide variety of state of the art cancer-related methods and tools for data analysis and interpretation. Chapters were designed to attract a broad readership, ranging from active researchers in computational biology and bioinformatics developers, clinical oncologists, and anti-cancer drug developers wishing to rationalize their search for new compounds. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, installation instructions for computational tools discussed, explanations of the input and output formats, and illustrative examples of applications. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Cancer Bioinformatics: Methods and Protocols aims to support researchers performing computational analysis of cancer-related data.

This collection of 25 research papers comprised of 22 original articles and 3 reviews is brought together from international leaders in bioinformatics and biostatistics. The collection highlights recent computational advances that improve the ability to analyze highly complex data sets to identify factors critical to cancer biology. Novel deep learning algorithms represent an emerging and highly valuable approach for collecting, characterizing and predicting clinical outcomes data. The collection highlights several of these approaches that are likely to become the foundation of research and clinical practice in the future. In fact, many of these technologies reveal new insights about basic cancer mechanisms by integrating data sets and structures that were previously immiscible. Accordingly, the series presented here bring forward a wide range of artificial intelligence approaches and statistical methods that can be applied to imaging and genomics data sets to identify previously unrecognized features that are critical for cancer. Our hope is that these articles will serve as a foundation for future research as the field of cancer biology transitions to integrating electronic health record, imaging, genomics and other complex datasets in order to develop new strategies that improve the overall health of individual patients.

This book provides a framework for computational researchers studying the basics of cancer through comparative analyses of omic data. It discusses how key cancer pathways can be analyzed and discovered to derive new insights into the disease and identifies diagnostic and prognostic markers for cancer. Chapters explain the basic cancer biology and how cancer develops, including the many potential survival routes. The examination of gene-expression patterns uncovers commonalities across multiple cancers and specific characteristics of individual cancer types. The authors also treat cancer as an evolving complex system, explore future case studies, and summarize the essential online data sources. Cancer Bioinformatics is designed for practitioners and researchers working in cancer research and bioinformatics. It is also suitable as a secondary textbook for advanced-level students studying computer science, biostatistics or biomedicine.

This volume focuses on a variety of in silico protocols of the latest bioinformatics tools and computational pipelines developed for neo-antigen identification and immune cell analysis from high-throughput sequencing data for cancer immunotherapy. The chapters in this book cover topics that discuss the two emerging concepts in recognition of tumor cells using endogenous T cells: cancer vaccines against neo-antigens presented on HLA class I and II alleles, and checkpoint inhibitors. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and authoritative, Bioinformatics for Cancer Immunotherapy: Methods and Protocols is a valuable research tool for any scientist and researcher interested in learning more about this exciting and developing field.

"The development and application of bioinformatics tools to basic and translational cancer research is, in fact, a rapidly expanding field that deserves a timely review. Therefore, a publication of this type is needed. The editors have done an excellent job in recruiting well-established scientists to author the various chapters of the book." —Dieter Naf, Jackson Laboratory, USA Cancer bioinformatics is now emerging as a new interdisciplinary field, which is facilitating an unprecedented synthesis of knowledge arising from the life and clinical sciences. This groundbreaking title provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the enormous range of bioinformatics for cancer therapy development from the laboratory to clinical trials. It functions as a guide to integrated data exploitation and synergistic knowledge discovery, and support the consolidation of the interdisciplinary research community involved.

Bioinformatics can be loosely defined as the collection, classification, storage, and analysis of biochemical and biological information using computers and mathematical algorithms. Bioinformatics represents a marriage of biology, medicine, computer science, physics, and mathematics, fields of study that have historically existed as mutually exclusive disciplines. Edited by Gavin Gordon, Bioinformatics in Cancer and Cancer Therapy, the focus of this book is to provide a historical and technical perspective on the analytical techniques, methodologies, and platforms used in bioinformatics experiments, to show how a bioinformatics approach has been used to characterize various cancer-related processes, and to demonstrate how a bioinformatics approach is being used to bridge basic science and the clinical arena to positively impact patient care and management.

This book discusses the application of bioinformatics in cancer disease management. It covers general aspects of cancer as a disease but also as a success story in the translation of omics data in clinical settings. It provides an overview of the specific applications of bioinformatics tools in cancer epidemiology, prevention, and screening and in the identification of novel genetic and molecular biomarkers involved in cancer development. This is accomplished through the inclusion of numerous examples of the use of bioinformatics in precision oncology.

This teaching monograph on systems approaches to cancer research and clinical applications provides a unique synthesis, by world-class scientists and doctors, of laboratory, computational, and clinical methods, thereby establishing the foundations for major advances not possible with current methods. Specifically, the book: 1) Sets the stage by describing the basis of systems biology and bioinformatics approaches, and the clinical background of cancer in a systems context; 2) Summarizes the laboratory, clinical, data systems analysis and bioinformatics tools, along with infrastructure and resources required; 3) Demonstrates the application of these tools to cancer research; 4) Extends these tools and methods to clinical diagnosis, drug development and treatment applications; and 5) Finishes by exploring longer term perspectives and providing conclusions. This book reviews the state-of-the-art, and goes beyond into new applications. It is written and highly referenced as a textbook and practical guide aimed at students, academics, doctors, clinicians, industrialists and managers in cancer research and therapeutic applications. Ideally, it will set the stage for integration of available knowledge to optimize communication between basic and clinical researchers involved in the ultimate fight against cancer, whatever the field of specific interest, whatever the area of activity within translational research.