Cancer Pathways

During oncogenesis, gene mutations or expression changes accumulate in pathways regulating specific aspects of cell proliferation. Biological pathways that, when dysregulated, allow cells to grow and divide unchecked include apoptosis (programmed cell death), cell cycle, DNA damage repair, and growth factor responses. Angiogenesis allows further tumor growth via vascularization and oxygenation. In addition, pathways such as cell adhesion and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition permit tumors to invade surrounding tissue. Many genes mediate and control each of these pathways, and changes in the sequence, expression, or epigenetics of any of those genes can dysregulate its pathway. The combination of mutated genes in any given cancer or tumor can be distinctive. Understanding molecular mechanisms behind specific cancers and developing diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers requires analyses of any one of these pathways in isolation or together with other pathways.

QIAGEN provides a broad range of assay technologies for cancer pathway research that enable analysis of gene expression and regulation, epigenetic modification, genotyping, and signal transduction pathway activation. Solutions optimized for cancer pathway studies include PCR array, miRNA, siRNA, mutation analysis, pathway reporter, chromatin IP, DNA methylation, and protein expression products.