Right now I am calling somatic variants on p53 of prostate and breast cancer to see if these two cancer types may have a common p53 SNP.
My initial pass showed that breast cancer has multiple p53 snps but prostate cancer showed minimal p53 SNP. However prostate cancer did show mutations on several p53 regulatory genes. I am curious if I can quantify, although these cancer types did not share exactly same snps on p53, they did in fact share "commonality" based on how closely related the p53 regulatory gene is from p53.
So far, I know that breast and prostate cancer will be 2 independent variables. I will also have to measure the coefficient of relationship between p53 and the regulatory gene. Assuming both mutations were significant, I am trying to measure the coefficient of relationship between breast and prostate cancer based on the CoR of p53 and regulatory gene (?). Is this the correct way to structure this problem?
It might help if you clarify whether you are dealing with somatic variants (appearing in cancer sample only) or SNPs (inherited).