Genomic information on tumors from 50 cancer types cataloged by the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) shows that only a few well-studied driver genes are frequently mutated, in contrast to many infrequently mutated genes that may also contribute to tumor biology. Hence there has been large interest in developing pathway and network analysis methods that group genes and illuminate the processes involved. We provide an overview of these analysis techniques and show where they guide mechanistic and translational investigations.

J.M.S. acknowledges support from the US National Cancer Institute (R01-CA180778 and U24-CA143858). L.D.S. and G.W. acknowledge support from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Human Genome Research Institute (P41 HG003751). G.D.B. is supported by NRNB (NIH, National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant number P41 GM103504)