Combining systems biology models of apoptosis provides superior predictions of the responsiveness of melanoma cells to cell death inducing drugs

Background Key to the clinical management of melanoma is the development of new diagnostic tools that predict individual patient prognosis and select from potential treatments those which may be effective. Identifying individual biomarkers in tumour cells to predict susceptibility to apoptotic cell death has thus far been largely unsuccessful, as apoptosis pathways show a high degree of signalling redundancy.