University:
Boston University
Course:
GMS AN 704 | Experimental Design and Statistical Methods
Academic year:

2023
Views:

488

Pages:

10
Author:

GalacticGuru

One last stinker… ¨ ¨ Cancer progression is a process. Cancers are evolving population with dynamic properties. Each cancer is genetically unique: “…the combination of drivers within a cancer type and their distribution within the founding clone and subclones varies for individual patients. This suggests that knowing the clonal architecture of each patient’s tumor will be crucial for optimizing their treatment.” (Kadroth, et. al. 2009) The upshot ¨ ¨ ¨ There are diverse cross-cutting ways of classifying cancers, which serve different purposes, in virtue of their identification of different features. The hope for a definitive nosology of cancer founded on genomics alone assumes that mutations are the distinctive causal factors in cancer, an assumption proving difficult to sustain in the face of empirical evidence. No single mechanism underlies cancer progression. Complex phenomena such as cancer may require a different picture of both (a) kinds & their classification, and (b) progress in science. Khalidi on Cancer as a Kind ¨ Khalidi: ¤ “the kind of entity that is most closely implicated with the process of cancer is cancer cell. I will argue that once the cancer cell is understood as a natural kind of entity, then cancer can be seen as a natural kind of process… Of all the natural kinds we have looked at this is perhaps the one most in line with Boyd’s homeostatic property cluster account. … the mutated caretaker genes can be thought of as the causal mechanism...” Khalidi: Essentialist? ¨ Cancer cells’ causal properties are only one (of many) necessary conditions on cancer progression, metastasis in particular. An analogy: Aging - Single initiator - Single pathway - Extent of interaction both w/in pathway, & w/ genes, environment - Extent of increase in interaction over the course of the disease process Infectious disease - Multiple initiators - Multiple pathways - Extent of interactions across pathways, w/ genes, environment - Extent of increase of interaction over the course of the disease process Arthritis Cancer Depression Aging ¨ ¨ How ought we identify a class of mechanisms that causes cancer to cluster as a kind? How do we choose? Do we need a new picture of scientific success? What should it look like? Molecular genetics of cancer Clinical Medicine Computational systems biology of cancer Cancer genomics and proteomics Epidemiology Evolutionary Perspectives Epigenetics & Development ¨ Cancer ü ü ü ü ü ü Heterogeneous Different disciplinary approaches, questions Different methodologies Target explananda operationalized differently Disciplines parse causal space differently Integrative theories? ¨ Aggression/Sexuality ü ü ü ü ü Diffuse Target Different disciplinary approaches, questions Different methodologies Same(?) phenomena operationalized differently Disciplines parse causal space differently Longino’s view: ¨ “From an empirical point of view, what we know is piecemeal and plural. Each approach offers partial knowledge of behavioral processes gleaned by application of its investigative tools. In applying these tools, the overall domain is parsed so that effects and their potential causes are represented in incommensurable ways. We can (and do) know a great deal, but what we know is not expressible in one single theoretical framework…we may remain metaphysically committed to the view that multiple factors or processes are interacting in our one world.” (Longino, 2013, pp. 144-7)

Cancer - Disunfied Kind, Unified Explanation Part 2

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