Defining neoplastic diseases differently: An emerging paradigm from The Cancer Genome Atlas lower-grade gliomas project

A recently published investigation by The Cancer Genome Atlas on lower grade diffuse gliomas provides biologic justification for defining diseases based on genetic properties rather than histologic features. Unsupervised clustering of data from multiple advanced molecular platforms divided diseases robustly into 3 cohesive groups that could be captured by clinically available biomarkers more reliably than by histology.