In a recent Cell Genomics paper, an international team headed up by David Woodcock, at the University of Oxford, and David Wedge from the Cancer Research UK Manchester Centre propose an “evotype” model for prostate cancer evolution.

Using several methods to classify the tumour data sets, they’ve identified two distinct types of prostate cancer emerging from different evolutionary pathways.

The study findings present significant implications for our understanding of prostate cancer that could allow tumours to be classified based on how the cancer evolves rather than solely on individual gene mutations or expression patterns. The concepts are relevant to numerous tumours, so could offer insights into risk stratification and disease behaviour across various types of cancer.