Foundation Models for Translational Cancer Biology

Cancer remains a leading cause of death globally. The complexity and diversity of cancer-related datasets across different specialties pose challenges in refining precision medicine for oncology. Foundation models offer a promising solution. Trained on vast amounts of data, these models develop a broad understanding across a wide range of tasks. We examine the role of foundation models in domains relevant to cancer research, including natural language processing, computer vision, molecular biology, and cheminformatics. Through a review of state-of-the-art methods, we explore how these models have already advanced translational cancer research goals such as precision tumor classification and artificial intelligence-assisted surgery. We also discuss prospective advances in areas like early tumor detection, personalized cancer treatment, and drug discovery. This review provides researchers with a curated set of resources and methodologies, offers practitioners a deeper understanding of how these models enhance cancer care, and points to opportunities for future applications of foundation models in cancer research.