Characterizing genomic alterations in cancer by complementary functional associations

In this month’s featured publication, Drs. Hahn and Beroukhim and colleagues present REVEALER, a computational tool to investigate the functional consequences of the many mutations identified in tumor samples.  Distinguishing “driver” mutations that underlie oncogenic phenotypes from “passenger” mutations with no evident functional consequences is critical to the development of effective targeted therapies. This publication demonstrates the ability of REVEALER to identify both known and new associations of defined mutations with functional states correlated with oncogenesis.