The number of kidney cancers is growing 3-5% each year due to unknown etiologies. Intra- and inter-tumor mediators increase oxidative stress and drive tumor heterogeneity.
Technology advancement in state-of-the-art instrumentation and methodologies allows researchers to detect and characterize global landscaping modifications in genes, proteins, and pathophysiology patterns at the single cell level.
We postulate that the sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their activation within subcellular compartments will change over a time-line of tumor evolvement and contribute to tumor heterogeneity. Therefore, the complexity of intracellular changes within a tumor and ROS-induced tumor heterogeneity coupled to the advancement of detecting these events globally is limited at the level of data collection, organization, and interpretation using software algorithms and bioinformatics.
Integrative and collaborative research, combining the power of numbers with careful experimental design, protocol development, and data interpretation, will translate cancer biology and therapeutics to a heightened level or leave the abundant raw data as stagnant and underutilized.
Antioxidants & redox signaling. 2016 Jun 10 [Epub ahead of print]
Karthigayan Shanmugasundaram, Karen Block
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Medicine, San Antonio, Texas, United States ; ., University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Medicine , 7703 Floyd Curl Dr. , San Antonio, Texas, United States , 78229.