据统计调查大部分研究生读研读博期间是独立完成课题（这个小组就有不少发言提到自己做研究），很少有交流，然而交流又非常重要，避免闭门造车和理解偏差。有些研究所、研究室和实验室有完善的学术制度，有共同理解文献和谈相互阅读体会的经历，这样做研究的过程提升会快一些，所以这些就不太适合看本帖，但是欢迎提供宝贵意见。而个人阅读文献难免会存在理解偏差问题，从信息获取角度而言，阅读一篇文献很难完全获取该文献表达的全部信息，有的时候存在理解困难、没有获得文献重点要表达的信息甚至完全南辕北辙的理解等问题。对于独立研究者来说，如何避免并提升研究质量呢？
一般来说，我们阅读文献有一个精读的过程，这个精读不仅是要自己读，也要看看别人怎么解读这篇文章的。精读的文章有一类是重点和热点以及具有突破性新闻报道的研究，这部分文章发表以后会有作者本人对新闻媒体介绍、编辑编发评论和专业网站配发相关评论。由于对这些文章解读的都是亲体力为和这方面的重量级专家，他们的解读对理解这篇文章就至关重要。把自己阅读文献的理解与作者本人和这些大牛做对照，相当于他们在辅导如何读文献，如何知道一篇文献的创新点是什么？如何发现这个问题的，通过什么方法进行的证实。
新闻媒体介绍的文献有的是在自己大学的网站，比如哈佛，mit很多系所会有对本系所发表的文章的介绍，这是一个来源。
编辑编发评论有的是在自己刊物，比如2008年science发表了正常乳腺上皮细胞可以定居肺部，在适当条件下激活诱导的基因可以发生乳腺癌，同期该刊编发了一个评论进行了解读。有的是在其他刊物，比如nature 下面的子刊有一部分会介绍其他杂志的重要发现。这些解读都非常专业，对于理解论文非常重要。
还有的专门网站，比如癌症领域 https://www.cancer.gov/news 这个网站， https://www.sciencedaily.com。
需要说明，经常这样精读对于考博英语和托福、GRE、雅思的英语阅读理解也非常重要。我考博的时候卫生部这个卷阅读理解满分，另外一个985大学阅读理解（40分得38分）
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Metastatic Colorectal Cancer May Spread Early in the Disease, Study Finds
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July 22, 2019, by NCI Staff
ENLARGEColorectal cancer cells can break away from the original tumor and travel through the blood or lymph system to other parts of the body, including the liver, lungs, and brain. Credit: National Cancer Institute
Many colorectal cancers are likely to have spread from the site where they first formed to other parts of the body long before the original tumor can be detected by current screening tests, new study results suggest.
Most cancer researchers have assumed that the spread, or metastasis, of tumors typically occurs later in the disease process. The general idea has been that as tumors grow and cancer cells accumulate more and more genetic changes, or mutations, some cells acquire the ability to move from the primary tumor into the bloodstream or lymphatic system, to migrate to a distant location in the body, and to grow into tumors in the new location.
But that’s not what Christina Curtis, Ph.D., of Stanford University School of Medicine, and her team found. Rather, their genomic analysis of both original, or primary, colorectal tumors and metastatic tumors from the same patients, coupled with computer simulations, led them to conclude that colorectal cancer can spread very soon after the original tumor has developed—and maybe years before the disease is diagnosed.
Their findings, published June 17 in Nature Genetics, open a window for very early detection of metastatic colorectal cancer and could eventually help doctors identify those patients who need more aggressive systemic treatments, such as chemotherapy given after surgical removal of the tumor, Dr. Curtis said.
Treatments that specifically target metastatic tumors do not yet exist, said Nancy Boudreau, Ph.D., chief of the Tumor Metastasis Branch in NCI’s Division of Cancer Biology. Metastatic cancer is notoriously challenging to treat, and metastasis accounts for most cancer-related deaths.
The NCI-funded study is significant, Dr. Boudreau said, because “it shows, for the first time in patients, that some tumor cells are capable of metastasizing from the get-go.” And the new findings may provide clues on how to target and eliminate such cells in the bloodstream, she said.
Building a Family Tree for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
“There has been a longstanding debate about when metastasis occurs,” Dr. Curtis said. Studying the metastatic process in humans is challenging because researchers can’t observe the process directly, she noted.
Colorectal cancer is a good model for studying the genetic changes in human tumors over time because the genetic changes that initiate colorectal cancer development, known as driver mutations, are well known, Dr. Curtis and her coauthors wrote.
To gain insights into the genetic changes involved in metastasis, the team first compared the patterns of genetic mutations between the primary tumors of 21 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and metastatic tumors inthe liver or brain from the same patients.
The researchers used the mutation patterns to create a “family tree” showing the genetic relatedness between the primary tumor and the metastatic tumorfor each patient, Dr. Curtis explained. In 17 of 21 patients (about 80%), the primary tumor appeared togive rise to the metastatic tumor very early in the disease process.
In those 17 patients, the team found few driver mutations that were unique to the metastasis. “Rather, the driver mutations found in the metastatic tumors were already present in the primary tumor,” Dr. Curtis said. Moreover, most of these mutations were present throughout different regions of the primary tumor and in the majority of cells, suggesting that they arose early during tumor development.
These findings suggested that most metastatic colorectal cancers are started by a single cell, or a small group of genetically similar cells, that break off from the original tumor early in its development, the authors wrote.
