Supporting Convergence Science
Authors: Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue
Journal: Cancer Research (2024)

Scientific publishing is a cornerstone of disseminating knowledge. One caveat of scientific publishing is that at any one time it is biased toward certain topics relative to others, a reflection of the dynamic nature of scientific discovery over time and the emergence of new technologies. As a result, some areas of cancer biology remain understudied and poorly understood. This reality is compounded by additional factors at play. For example, the ability to bridge gaps in knowledge may prove difficult if investigators from disparate fields are unaware of each other's work; such investigators may be located in entirely different institutions, if not countries. Alternatively, some areas of cancer research have remained understudied because there is a need for technologies or datasets that have yet to be created. Collectively, these "missed" opportunities within scientific publishing that are centered within the realm of convergence science represent an opportunity for Cancer Research.To support and promote this type of research, it is important to establish what I think "convergence science" is. In general terms, convergence science may be considered any study that bridges two areas of research that are not normally studied together. In an effort to define what these topics are for Cancer Research specifically, I relied upon a more objective strategy to identify some of the topics that have rarely appeared together in the scientific literature published by our journal. First, all papers accepted for publication by Cancer Research from January 2020 to May 2023 were pulled from the submission system. A total of 1,338 papers were identified, and the author-selected keywords for each article were extracted. Related and redundant keywords were then grouped into 40 umbrella keyword terms encompassing major categories of cancer biology or technology. Finally, the extent that each of these 40 terms was used with another was analyzed and visualized as a Circos plot (Fig. 1).At first glance, there are clear patterns in the data. For example, Tumor Microenvironment and Immunology and Immunotherapy are terms that were commonly used together, as were the terms Therapeutic Agents and Drug Targets and Mechanisms. The term Cell Signaling was most often applied in association with either Oncogenes and Tumor Suppressors or with Progression, Invasion, and Metastasis. I also reviewed the frequency of usage of each of the keyword terms (Table 1). Six keywords were selected more than 200 times, including Tumor Microenvironment; Oncogenes and Tumor Suppressors; Epigenetics and Gene Regulation; Drug Targets and Mechanisms; Immunology and Immunotherapy; and Progression, Invasion, and Metastasis. Collectively these terms reflect the strong focus of Cancer Research on basic science and translational research to date, and we will maintain this emphasis moving forward. However, we want to ensure that we are supporting all types of cancer research under the umbrella of basic and translational science, thus the terms that were not commonly used are of particular interest.Seventeen keyword terms were used fewer than 50 times in the dataset (Table 1). These terms reflect state of the art technology (Protein Technologies, Gene Technologies, Single Cell Technologies, Biophysical Technologies and Engineering), drug development (Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Drug Discovery Technologies, Pharmacology), analytic approaches (Systems Biology), specific features of cancer biology (Tumor Evolution, Angiogenesis, Endocrinology, Viral Oncogenesis, Epidemiology), and clinical management (Radiation Oncology and Radiobiology, Precision Medicine, Surgical Oncology, Clinical Trial Results and Clinical Research).There are several possible reasons why some terms are underrepresented in the dataset. First, the authors may not have selected all relevant keywords for their manuscript. Second, manuscripts related to these topics may have been published more often in journals other than Cancer Research. Given the focus of Cancer Research on basic science, some topics may be better suited for other journals, particularly those with a clinical focus. Third, the emergence of the research topic may also have been too recent to be included in the list of papers accepted during the time period of focus. Finally, and as discussed earlier, investigators working on different aspects of cancer research may not have an opportunity to interact, collaborate, and ultimately publish their work. While it is conceivable data from different journals or databases would yield different results, I nonetheless believe this exercise supports my original impression that there are gaps in the published literature, including those contributed by Cancer Research specifically.The above analyses indicate to me that the intersection of big data and state of the art technologies with studies of the risk factors associated with cancer incidence and progression represent opportunities for advancing the field. On the basis of this conclusion and trends in cancer research in general, I have identified four highly iterative areas of convergence research that are of particular interest to Cancer Research. These are the Biological Basis of Cancer Disparities, the Cancer Macroenvironment, Systems Level Analyses of Cancer Biology and Progression, and Mechanisms of Resistance.Of the papers accepted by Cancer Research during the evaluated period, a very small percentage related to racial, ethnic, or sex disparities based on the author-selected keywords. Cancer disparities are understood to be multifactorial in nature, yet the biological basis is relatively understudied compared to other aspects like socioeconomic factors and access to health care. With the advent of next-generation technologies, large amounts of data are rapidly becoming available to the research community to begin to investigate and understand how genetic ancestry or sex impacts cancer biology. The development of model systems that accurately reflect genetic ancestry are also of interest; these model systems will support mechanistic studies of how cell biology may differ between disparate racial and ethnic populations, with the hope of improving therapeutic outcomes.Many studies in recent years have focused on perturbations of the local host response to an infiltrating cancer, and Cancer Research remains interested in such studies on the tumor microenvironment. However, far fewer studies have addressed the role of host physiology on cancer biology. Cancer Research itself only accepted a few papers related to host factors as a modifier of cancer biology over the time period studied. We encourage studies on the impact of host variables, such as aging, exercise, trauma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, or other comorbidities, on any aspect of cancer biology and the mechanistic underpinnings.Cancer research is now fully in the era of big data where machine learning and artificial intelligence strategies are being used to unravel the complexities of cancer. Cancer Research aims to publish seminal studies in all aspects of systems and computational biology that provide novel insights into cancer biology. Research of particular interest in this area includes studies that develop systems level or computational models that uncover previously unknown aspects of the biological basis of cancer disparities or the effects of host physiology on cancer biology.The continued development of novel therapies will unfortunately be accompanied by new mechanisms of adaptation and resistance. It remains of paramount importance to understand these mechanisms to continuously guide treatment management. Mechanisms of resistance may be elucidated by model systems, cutting-edge protein, gene, or biophysical technologies, or computational and systems approaches to big data. We are also interested in studies that aim to understand the extent that adaptation and resistance occurs in the context of racial, ethnic, and sex disparities.Beyond these four topics, Cancer Research remains interested in all aspects of basic and translational research that deepens and extends the mechanistic understanding of cancer biology, disease progression, and treatment response and resistance. However, Cancer Research also aims to distinguish itself as the home of convergence science. In doing so, my hope is for the journal's content to stimulate discussion, to help form novel hypotheses, and to ultimately take an active role in supporting the next series of breakthrough discoveries within our field.C.A. Iacobuzio-Donahue reports other support from Bristol Myers Squibb outside the submitted work.I would like to thank Harmony Turk for her assistance in development of the dataset referred to in this editorial and Elias Ramsey-Karnoub for providing the Circos plot used for Fig. 1.