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Åke Borg

Åke Borg

Principal investigator

Åke Borg

The evolutionary history of 2,658 cancers

Author

  • Moritz Gerstung
  • Clemency Jolly
  • Ignaty Leshchiner
  • Stefan C Dentro
  • Santiago Gonzalez
  • Daniel Rosebrock
  • Thomas J Mitchell
  • Yulia Rubanova
  • Pavana Anur
  • Kaixian Yu
  • Maxime Tarabichi
  • Amit Deshwar
  • Jeff Wintersinger
  • Kortine Kleinheinz
  • Ignacio Vázquez-García
  • Kerstin Haase
  • Lara Jerman
  • Subhajit Sengupta
  • Geoff Macintyre
  • Salem Malikic
  • Nilgun Donmez
  • Dimitri G Livitz
  • Marek Cmero
  • Jonas Demeulemeester
  • Steven Schumacher
  • Yu Fan
  • Xiaotong Yao
  • Juhee Lee
  • Matthias Schlesner
  • Paul C Boutros
  • David D Bowtell
  • Hongtu Zhu
  • Gad Getz
  • Marcin Imielinski
  • Rameen Beroukhim
  • S Cenk Sahinalp
  • Yuan Ji
  • Martin Peifer
  • Florian Markowetz
  • Ville Mustonen
  • Ke Yuan
  • Wenyi Wang
  • Quaid D Morris
  • Paul T Spellman
  • David C Wedge
  • Peter Van Loo
Show all

Other contributions

  • Åke Borg
  • Markus Ringnér
  • Johan Staaf

Summary, in English

Cancer develops through a process of somatic evolution1,2. Sequencing data from a single biopsy represent a snapshot of this process that can reveal the timing of specific genomic aberrations and the changing influence of mutational processes3. Here, by whole-genome sequencing analysis of 2,658 cancers as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)4, we reconstruct the life history and evolution of mutational processes and driver mutation sequences of 38 types of cancer. Early oncogenesis is characterized by mutations in a constrained set of driver genes, and specific copy number gains, such as trisomy 7 in glioblastoma and isochromosome 17q in medulloblastoma. The mutational spectrum changes significantly throughout tumour evolution in 40% of samples. A nearly fourfold diversification of driver genes and increased genomic instability are features of later stages. Copy number alterations often occur in mitotic crises, and lead to simultaneous gains of chromosomal segments. Timing analyses suggest that driver mutations often precede diagnosis by many years, if not decades. Together, these results determine the evolutionary trajectories of cancer, and highlight opportunities for early cancer detection.

Department/s

  • LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
  • Familial Breast Cancer
  • Breastcancer-genetics
  • Molecular Cell Biology
  • Breast/lungcancer
  • Division of Translational Cancer Research
  • Research Group Lung Cancer

Publishing year

2020-02

Language

English

Pages

122-128

Publication/Series

Nature

Volume

578

Issue

7793

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Medical Genetics

Keywords

  • DNA Repair/genetics
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Gene Dosage
  • Genes, Tumor Suppressor
  • Genetic Variation
  • Genome, Human/genetics
  • Humans
  • Mutagenesis, Insertional/genetics
  • Neoplasms/genetics

Status

Published

Research group

  • Familial Breast Cancer
  • Research Group Lung Cancer

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0028-0836