Moderated by:
• David Agus, MD | Ellison Institute
• Anna Barker, PhD, FAACR | Ellison Institute

We have long viewed cancer as a disease of uncontrolled cell growth and targeted those cells for diagnosis and treatment. However, since cancer is a complex adaptive system, is it time to develop new intervention strategies based on understanding cancer as a disease of dysfunctional communication?

Cancer initiation, development, and metastatic disease stem from the dysfunctional information of altered cancer genomes. Profiling these genomic alterations has become one of the major foundations for precision oncology. Understanding exactly how this dysfunctional cancer information is encoded and/or encrypted, managed, and communicated across biological scales will require the field to embrace and apply mathematical-based theoretical approaches, such as information and communication theories.

Join us for this Insights Forum as we envision a future in which these approaches are more broadly adopted in cancer research and consider the intriguing idea that cancer is, in reality, a disease of dysregulated information and dysfunctional communication.