vulcanSpot: a tool to prioritize therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer

Bioinformatics. 2019 Nov 1;35(22):4846-4848. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btz465.

Abstract

Motivation: Genetic alterations lead to tumor progression and cell survival but also uncover cancer-specific vulnerabilities on gene dependencies that can be therapeutically exploited.

Results: vulcanSpot is a novel computational approach implemented to expand the therapeutic options in cancer beyond known-driver genes unlocking alternative ways to target undruggable genes. The method integrates genome-wide information provided by massive screening experiments to detect genetic vulnerabilities associated to tumors. Then, vulcanSpot prioritizes drugs to target cancer-specific gene dependencies using a weighted scoring system based on well known drug-gene relationships and drug repositioning strategies.

Availability and implementation: http://www.vulcanspot.org.

Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computational Biology
  • Drug Repositioning
  • Humans
  • Mutation
  • Neoplasms*
  • Software