Signatures of neutral evolution in exponentially growing tumors: A theoretical perspective

by Hwai-Ray Tung, Rick Durrett

Recent work of Sottoriva, Graham, and collaborators have led to the controversial claim that exponentially growing tumors have a site frequency spectrum that follows the 1/f law consistent with neutral evolution. This conclusion has been criticized based on data quality issues, statistical considerations, and simulation results. Here, we use rigorous mathematical arguments to investigate the site frequency spectrum in the two-type model of clonal evolution. If the fitnesses of the two types are λ0

Source: PLoS Computational Biology - February 11, 2021 Category: Biology Authors: Hwai-Ray Tung Source Type: research