Systems biology and cancer: Promises and perils

Systems biology uses systems of mathematical rules and formulas to study complex biological phenomena. In cancer research there are three distinct threads in systems biology research: modeling biology or biophysics with the goal of establishing plausibility or obtaining insights, modeling based on statistics, bioinformatics, and reverse engineering with the goal of better characterizing the system, and modeling with the goal of clinical predictions. Using illustrative examples we discuss these threads in the context of cancer research.