[Searching for essential genes in cancer genomes]

The concept of essential genes, whose loss of functionality leads to cell death, is one of the fundamental concepts of genetics and is important for fundamental and applied research. This field is particularly promising in relation to oncology, since the search for genetic vulnerabilities of cancer cells allows us to identify new potential targets for antitumor therapy. The modern biotechnology capacities allow carrying out large-scale projects for sequencing somatic mutations in tumors, as well as directly interfering the genetic apparatus of cancer cells. They provided accumulation of a considerable body of knowledge about genetic variants and corresponding phenotypic manifestations in tumors. In the near future this knowledge will find application in clinical practice. This review describes the main experimental and computational approaches to the search for essential genes, concentrating on the application of these methods in the field of molecular oncology.