Examining Cancer Patient Data: Reflection

Three things I learned from this activity:

1.  How (seemingly) closely linked cell fate and cell survival are to melanoma.
2.  Many cancers have the same mutations.
3. Certain chromosomes are more likely to have more mutations on them (looking at you chromosome 7, 9, and 17), and those mutations being "shared" in different cancers.

Two things that surprised or interested me:

1.  That the mutations that occur to cause cancer are seemingly random for almost every type of cancer that was in the activity.
2.  The research that I found:
• Researchers found that they could cause melanoma in mice (by mutating the BRAFV600E gene) and that AKT isoform specific knockout (KO) can slow tumor development in mice and human trials. It could soon be used for a new therapy.
• http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/23/1_Supplement/B07

One question that I still have:

1. What is the differentation between cancers (when the mutations occur randomly, and completely different cancers can have the same mutations)??