Repository logo
 

Analyses of non-coding somatic drivers in 2,658 cancer whole genomes.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Change log

Authors

Rheinbay, Esther 
Nielsen, Morten Muhlig 
Abascal, Federico 
Wala, Jeremiah A 
Shapira, Ofer 

Abstract

The discovery of drivers of cancer has traditionally focused on protein-coding genes1-4. Here we present analyses of driver point mutations and structural variants in non-coding regions across 2,658 genomes from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium5 of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). For point mutations, we developed a statistically rigorous strategy for combining significance levels from multiple methods of driver discovery that overcomes the limitations of individual methods. For structural variants, we present two methods of driver discovery, and identify regions that are significantly affected by recurrent breakpoints and recurrent somatic juxtapositions. Our analyses confirm previously reported drivers6,7, raise doubts about others and identify novel candidates, including point mutations in the 5' region of TP53, in the 3' untranslated regions of NFKBIZ and TOB1, focal deletions in BRD4 and rearrangements in the loci of AKR1C genes. We show that although point mutations and structural variants that drive cancer are less frequent in non-coding genes and regulatory sequences than in protein-coding genes, additional examples of these drivers will be found as more cancer genomes become available.

Description

Keywords

DNA Breaks, Databases, Genetic, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, INDEL Mutation, Mutation, Neoplasms

Journal Title

Nature

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0028-0836
1476-4687

Volume Title

578

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC