termsTerm
Driver mutation
aka driver mutations, driver, drivers, oncogenic driver, oncogenic drivers, driver alteration, driver alterations, driver gene, driver genes, passenger mutation, passenger mutations
One of the few mutations in a tumour that actually causes it to grow. Everything else is a passenger along for the ride. Drivers are the mutations drugs are aimed at.
A tumour with thousands of mutations usually has two to eight drivers that confer a growth advantage; the rest are passengers that happened to be present in the cell that became cancerous. Drivers cluster in a few hundred genes: oncogenes activated by mutation or amplification (EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, HER2, ALK) and tumour suppressors lost by mutation or deletion (TP53, RB1, PTEN). Genomic profiling looks for known drivers because a tumour that depends on one can often be treated with a drug against it, the phenomenon called oncogene addiction.
Category
Biology basics