Validation and integration of gene-expression signatures in cancer

摘要

Extensive validation of microarray-basedngene signatures represents the significantnchallenge in the integration of such informationninto the standard of care of cancernpatient management. Both retrospectivenand prospective validation, using multipleninstitutions or in cooperation withnclinical trial groups, should be considerednin the design of validation studies. Innaddition, biological pathway analysis andnDNA copy number changes can provide annew dimension of data to verify the genenexpression-based signatures. To obtain ancomprehensive molecular and clinicalnpicture of the patient, the informationnobtained from these signatures shouldnthen be used in concert with standard risknfactors as well as data obtained fromnpathological and clinical evaluations.