Researchers at Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities have developed a novel mathematical model to map cancer progression. The researchers said that their study provides a new paradigm in calculating tumour development, showing that it appears to be driven by mutations in many genes.

Scientists' understanding of the progression of cancer has long been based on streamlined models where cancer is driven by mutations in only a few genes, according to the background information in an article published in PLoS Computational Biology. The researchers have shown how tumour progression can be driven by hundreds of genes. They say that as many as 20 different mutated genes may be responsible for driving an individual tumour's development.

During the research, a case of colon cancer was studied. Cancer progression proceeds stochastically from a single genetically altered cell to billions of invasive cells through a series of clonal expansions.