Gene expression profiling for targeted cancer treatment

Introduction: There is certain degree of frustration and discontent in the area of microarray gene expression data analysis of cancer datasets. It arises from the mathematical problem called 'curse of dimensionality,' which is due to the small number of samples available in training sets, used for calculating transcriptional signatures from the large number of differentially expressed (DE) genes, measured by microarrays. The new generation of causal reasoning algorithms can provide solutions to the curse of dimensionality by transforming microarray data into activity of a small number of cancer hallmark pathways. This new approach can make feature space dimensionality optimal for mathematical signature calculations.Areas covered: The author reviews the reasons behind the current frustration with transcriptional signatures derived from DE genes in cancer. He also provides an overview of the novel methods for signature calculations based on differentially variable genes and expression regulators. Furthermore, the authors provide perspectives on causal reasoning algorithms that use prior knowledge about regulatory events described in scientific literature to identify expression regulators responsible for the differential expression observed in cancer samples.Expert opinion: The author advocates causal reasoning methods to calculate cancer pathway activity signatures. The current challenge for these algorithms is in ensuring quality of the knowledgebase. Indeed, the development of cancer hallmark pathway collections, together with statistical algorithms to transform activity of expression regulators into pathway activity, are necessary for causal reasoning to be used in cancer research.