GeRnika: simulating, visualizing and comparing tumor evolution data

Abstract

Cancer is a collection of genetic diseases based on the uncontrollable division of cells and their spreading into surrounding tissues, caused by changes in DNA. This process leads to the overcrowding of altered cells that form a mass known as tumor. Nevertheless, all cells in a particular tumor do not have the same characteristics as tumors are formed by diverse clones with different mutations, and therefore different properties and behaviour. As a consequence, this intratumoral heterogeneity entails a problem in regard to the diagnosis and medical treatments that can help to manage the disease, potentially resulting in the failure of therapies and the possible propagation of carcinogenic cells to other organs or tissues, which is known as metastasis. Therefore, the development of methods to study the intratumoral heterogeneity are a hot research topic. This project aims at providing a tool to help researchers to easily simulate tumor data and analyze the results of their approaches for studying the composition and the evolutionary history of tumors.