Could mathematics help to better treat cancer?

Using the information theory, researchers at UNIGE aim to better understand the cancerous development of cells through a mathematical approach and propose innovative therapeutic strategies. The development and survival of living beings are linked to the ability of their cells to perceive and respond correctly to their environment. To do this, cells communicate through chemical signal systems, called signalling pathways, which regulate and coordinate cellular activity. However, impaired information processing may prevent cells from perceiving their environment correctly; they then start acting in an uncontrolled way and this can lead to the development of cancer. To better understand how impaired information transmission influences the activity of diseased cells, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, are going beyond the field of biology. They propose to examine cellular communication in the light of information theory, a mathematical theory more commonly used in computer science. This work, to be discovered in the journal Trends in Cell Biology , offers a radically new approach to oncology. "In a way, cancer can be viewed as an information disease", says Karolina Zieli'ska, a researcher at the Translational Research in Onco-haematology (CRTOH) at UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and first author of this work.  "But while the oncogenic power of overor under-activated signalling pathways is becoming well known, the exact mechanisms remain quite mysterious." How, indeed, do cells make their decisions based on the information they perceive - or no longer perceive?