流行病学研究表明，患有神经发育障碍 (NDD) 的个体更容易患上某些类型的癌症。然而值得注意的是，病例统计数据可能会受到患有 NDD（例如智力障碍、自闭症和精神分裂症）个体癌症的晚期发现的影响，这可能会导致数字出现偏差。至于 NDD 相关突变，在大多数情况下，它们是种系突变，而癌症突变是零星的，在生命中出现。然而，体细胞嵌合可能会刺激 NDD，并且与癌症相关的突变可能是种系突变。 NDD 和癌症具有相同的蛋白质、途径和突变。在这里，我们询问（i）它们到底有哪些共同特征，以及（ii）尽管它们有共同点，但它们在临床结果上有何不同。为了解决这些问题，我们采用了统计框架，然后进行网络分析。我们对突变、重建的疾病特异性网络、通路、转录组水平以及自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 和癌症的概况进行了彻底的探索，指出信号强度是关键因素：强信号传导促进癌症中的细胞增殖，而较弱的信号传导强度是关键因素。中）信号传导影响 ASD 的分化。因此，我们认为决定临床结果的是信号强度，而不是激活突变。© 2023。作者。

Epidemiological studies suggest that individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are more prone to develop certain types of cancer. Notably, however, the case statistics can be impacted by late discovery of cancer in individuals afflicted with NDDs, such as intellectual disorders, autism, and schizophrenia, which may bias the numbers. As to NDD-associated mutations, in most cases, they are germline while cancer mutations are sporadic, emerging during life. However, somatic mosaicism can spur NDDs, and cancer-related mutations can be germline. NDDs and cancer share proteins, pathways, and mutations. Here we ask (i) exactly which features they share, and (ii) how, despite their commonalities, they differ in clinical outcomes. To tackle these questions, we employed a statistical framework followed by network analysis. Our thorough exploration of the mutations, reconstructed disease-specific networks, pathways, and transcriptome levels and profiles of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and cancers, point to signaling strength as the key factor: strong signaling promotes cell proliferation in cancer, and weaker (moderate) signaling impacts differentiation in ASD. Thus, we suggest that signaling strength, not activating mutations, can decide clinical outcome.© 2023. The Author(s).