Four researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech and their colleagues at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine are advocating the use of systems biology as an innovative clinical approach to cancer. This approach could result in the development of improved diagnostic tools and treatment options, as well as potential new drug targets to help combat the many potentially fatal types of the disease.

Most of the diseases which plague humankind today are multifactorial: they are not simply the result of one mutation in one gene, producing one rogue protein that can no longer carry out its job. Diabetes and obesity, for instance, depend on many simultaneous genetic and environmental factors.