What are cancer driver genes?
Recent sequencing and resequencing (i.e., polymorphism identification) efforts have catalyzed the quest for 'driver' mutations (i.e., those genetic alterations which contribute to the transformation of a normal cell to a proliferating cancerous cell) in distinction to 'passenger' mutations which reflect mutations that merely build up in course of normal and unchecked (i.e., cancerous) somatic cell replication and proliferation. Analysis of the frequency of specific mutations across different tumors has been able to identify some, but not all of the mutated genes that contribute to tumor initiation and progression. A subset of these mutations contribute to tumor progression (known as "driver" mutations) whereas the majority of these mutations are effectively neutral (known as "passenger" mutations).