1. |
- Alexandrov, Ludmil B., et al.
(author)
-
Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer
- 2013
-
In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 500:7463, s. 415-421
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- All cancers are caused by somatic mutations; however, understanding of the biological processes generating these mutations is limited. The catalogue of somatic mutations from a cancer genome bears the signatures of the mutational processes that have been operative. Here we analysed 4,938,362 mutations from 7,042 cancers and extracted more than 20 distinct mutational signatures. Some are present in many cancer types, notably a signature attributed to the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, whereas others are confined to a single cancer class. Certain signatures are associated with age of the patient at cancer diagnosis, known mutagenic exposures or defects in DNA maintenance, but many are of cryptic origin. In addition to these genome-wide mutational signatures, hypermutation localized to small genomic regions, 'kataegis', is found in many cancer types. The results reveal the diversity of mutational processes underlying the development of cancer, with potential implications for understanding of cancer aetiology, prevention and therapy.
|
|
2. |
- Brinkman, Arie B., et al.
(author)
-
Partially methylated domains are hypervariable in breast cancer and fuel widespread CpG island hypermethylation
- 2019
-
In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 10:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Global loss of DNA methylation and CpG island (CGI) hypermethylation are key epigenomic aberrations in cancer. Global loss manifests itself in partially methylated domains (PMDs) which extend up to megabases. However, the distribution of PMDs within and between tumor types, and their effects on key functional genomic elements including CGIs are poorly defined. We comprehensively show that loss of methylation in PMDs occurs in a large fraction of the genome and represents the prime source of DNA methylation variation. PMDs are hypervariable in methylation level, size and distribution, and display elevated mutation rates. They impose intermediate DNA methylation levels incognizant of functional genomic elements including CGIs, underpinning a CGI methylator phenotype (CIMP). Repression effects on tumor suppressor genes are negligible as they are generally excluded from PMDs. The genomic distribution of PMDs reports tissue-of-origin and may represent tissue-specific silent regions which tolerate instability at the epigenetic, transcriptomic and genetic level.
|
|
3. |
- Davies, Helen R., et al.
(author)
-
HRDetect is a predictor of BRCA1 and BRCA2 deficiency based on mutational signatures
- 2017
-
In: Nature Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-170X .- 1078-8956. ; 23:4, s. 517-525
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Approximately 1-5% of breast cancers are attributed to inherited mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 and are selectively sensitive to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. In other cancer types, germline and/or somatic mutations in BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 (BRCA1/BRCA2) also confer selective sensitivity to PARP inhibitors. Thus, assays to detect BRCA1/BRCA2-deficient tumors have been sought. Recently, somatic substitution, insertion/deletion and rearrangement patterns, or 'mutational signatures', were associated with BRCA1/BRCA2 dysfunction. Herein we used a lasso logistic regression model to identify six distinguishing mutational signatures predictive of BRCA1/BRCA2 deficiency. A weighted model called HRDetect was developed to accurately detect BRCA1/BRCA2-deficient samples. HRDetect identifies BRCA1/BRCA2-deficient tumors with 98.7% sensitivity (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.98). Application of this model in a cohort of 560 individuals with breast cancer, of whom 22 were known to carry a germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, allowed us to identify an additional 22 tumors with somatic loss of BRCA1 or BRCA2 and 47 tumors with functional BRCA1/BRCA2 deficiency where no mutation was detected. We validated HRDetect on independent cohorts of breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancers and demonstrated its efficacy in alternative sequencing strategies. Integrating all of the classes of mutational signatures thus reveals a larger proportion of individuals with breast cancer harboring BRCA1/BRCA2 deficiency (up to 22%) than hitherto appreciated (∼1-5%) who could have selective therapeutic sensitivity to PARP inhibition.
|
|
4. |
- Degasperi, Andrea, et al.
(author)
-
A practical framework and online tool for mutational signature analyses show intertissue variation and driver dependencies
- 2020
-
In: Nature Cancer. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2662-1347. ; 1:2, s. 249-263
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mutational signatures are patterns of mutations that arise during tumorigenesis. We present an enhanced, practical framework for mutational signature analyses. Applying these methods to 3,107 whole-genome-sequenced (WGS) primary cancers of 21 organs reveals known signatures and nine previously undescribed rearrangement signatures. We highlight interorgan variability of signatures and present a way of visualizing that diversity, reinforcing our findings in an independent analysis of 3,096 WGS metastatic cancers. Signatures with a high level of genomic instability are dependent on TP53 dysregulation. We illustrate how uncertainty in mutational signature identification and assignment to samples affects tumor classification, reinforcing that using multiple orthogonal mutational signature data is not only beneficial, but is also essential for accurate tumor stratification. Finally, we present a reference web-based tool for cancer and experimentally generated mutational signatures, called Signal (https://signal.mutationalsignatures.com), that also supports performing mutational signature analyses.
|
|
5. |
- Glodzik, Dominik, et al.
(author)
-
A somatic-mutational process recurrently duplicates germline susceptibility loci and tissue-specific super-enhancers in breast cancers
- 2017
-
In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 49:3, s. 341-348
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Somatic rearrangements contribute to the mutagenized landscape of cancer genomes. Here, we systematically interrogated rearrangements in 560 breast cancers by using a piecewise constant fitting approach. We identified 33 hotspots of large (>100 kb) tandem duplications, a mutational signature associated with homologous-recombination-repair deficiency. Notably, these tandem-duplication hotspots were enriched in breast cancer germline susceptibility loci (odds ratio (OR) = 4.28) and breast-specific 'super-enhancer' regulatory elements (OR = 3.54). These hotspots may be sites of selective susceptibility to double-strand-break damage due to high transcriptional activity or, through incrementally increasing copy number, may be sites of secondary selective pressure. The transcriptomic consequences ranged from strong individual oncogene effects to weak but quantifiable multigene expression effects. We thus present a somatic-rearrangement mutational process affecting coding sequences and noncoding regulatory elements and contributing a continuum of driver consequences, from modest to strong effects, thereby supporting a polygenic model of cancer development.
|
|
6. |
- Glodzik, Dominik, et al.
(author)
-
Comprehensive molecular comparison of BRCA1 hypermethylated and BRCA1 mutated triple negative breast cancers
- 2020
-
In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 11:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) is a defining characteristic in BRCA-deficient breast tumors caused by genetic or epigenetic alterations in key pathway genes. We investigated the frequency of BRCA1 promoter hypermethylation in 237 triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) from a population-based study using reported whole genome and RNA sequencing data, complemented with analyses of genetic, epigenetic, transcriptomic and immune infiltration phenotypes. We demonstrate that BRCA1 promoter hypermethylation is twice as frequent as BRCA1 pathogenic variants in early-stage TNBC and that hypermethylated and mutated cases have similarly improved prognosis after adjuvant chemotherapy. BRCA1 hypermethylation confers an HRD, immune cell type, genome-wide DNA methylation, and transcriptional phenotype similar to TNBC tumors with BRCA1-inactivating variants, and it can be observed in matched peripheral blood of patients with tumor hypermethylation. Hypermethylation may be an early event in tumor development that progress along a common pathway with BRCA1-mutated disease, representing a promising DNA-based biomarker for early-stage TNBC.
|
|
7. |
- Glodzik, Dominik, et al.
(author)
-
Mutational mechanisms of amplifications revealed by analysis of clustered rearrangements in breast cancers
- 2018
-
In: Annals of Oncology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1569-8041 .- 0923-7534.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundComplex clusters of rearrangements are a challenge in interpretation of cancer genomes. Some clusters of rearrangements demarcate clear amplifications of driver oncogenes but others are less well understood. A detailed analysis of rearrangements within these complex clusters could reveal new insights into selection and underlying mutational mechanisms.Patients and methodsHere, we systematically investigate rearrangements that are densely clustered in individual tumours in a cohort of 560 breast cancers. Applying an agnostic approach, we identify 21 hotspots where clustered rearrangements recur across cancers.ResultsSome hotspots coincide with known oncogene loci including CCND1, ERBB2, ZNF217, chr8:ZNF703/FGFR1, IGF1R, and MYC. Others contain cancer genes not typically associated with breast cancer: MCL1, PTP4A1, and MYB. Intriguingly, we identify clustered rearrangements that physically connect distant hotspots. In particular, we observe simultaneous amplification of chr8:ZNF703/FGFR1 and chr11:CCND1 where deep analysis reveals that a chr8–chr11 translocation is likely to be an early, critical, initiating event.ConclusionsWe present an overview of complex rearrangements in breast cancer, highlighting a potential new way for detecting drivers and revealing novel mechanistic insights into the formation of two common amplicons.
|
|
8. |
- Ju, Young Seok, et al.
(author)
-
Frequent somatic transfer of mitochondrial DNA into the nuclear genome of human cancer cells.
- 2015
-
In: Genome Research. - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1549-5469 .- 1088-9051. ; 25:6, s. 814-824
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mitochondrial genomes are separated from the nuclear genome for most of the cell cycle by the nuclear double membrane, intervening cytoplasm, and the mitochondrial double membrane. Despite these physical barriers, we show that somatically acquired mitochondrial-nuclear genome fusion sequences are present in cancer cells. Most occur in conjunction with intranuclear genomic rearrangements, and the features of the fusion fragments indicate that nonhomologous end joining and/or replication-dependent DNA double-strand break repair are the dominant mechanisms involved. Remarkably, mitochondrial-nuclear genome fusions occur at a similar rate per base pair of DNA as interchromosomal nuclear rearrangements, indicating the presence of a high frequency of contact between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA in some somatic cells. Transmission of mitochondrial DNA to the nuclear genome occurs in neoplastically transformed cells, but we do not exclude the possibility that some mitochondrial-nuclear DNA fusions observed in cancer occurred years earlier in normal somatic cells.
|
|
9. |
- Ju, Young Seok, et al.
(author)
-
Somatic mutations reveal asymmetric cellular dynamics in the early human embryo
- 2017
-
In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 543:7647, s. 714-718
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Somatic cells acquire mutations throughout the course of an individual's life. Mutations occurring early in embryogenesis are often present in a substantial proportion of, but not all, cells in postnatal humans and thus have particular characteristics and effects. Depending on their location in the genome and the proportion of cells they are present in, these mosaic mutations can cause a wide range of genetic disease syndromes and predispose carriers to cancer. They have a high chance of being transmitted to offspring as de novo germline mutations and, in principle, can provide insights into early human embryonic cell lineages and their contributions to adult tissues. Although it is known that gross chromosomal abnormalities are remarkably common in early human embryos, our understanding of early embryonic somatic mutations is very limited. Here we use whole-genome sequences of normal blood from 241 adults to identify 163 early embryonic mutations. We estimate that approximately three base substitution mutations occur per cell per cell-doubling event in early human embryogenesis and these are mainly attributable to two known mutational signatures. We used the mutations to reconstruct developmental lineages of adult cells and demonstrate that the two daughter cells of many early embryonic cell-doubling events contribute asymmetrically to adult blood at an approximately 2:1 ratio. This study therefore provides insights into the mutation rates, mutational processes and developmental outcomes of cell dynamics that operate during early human embryogenesis.
|
|
10. |
- Morganella, Sandro, et al.
(author)
-
The topography of mutational processes in breast cancer genomes
- 2016
-
In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 7
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Somatic mutations in human cancers show unevenness in genomic distribution that correlate with aspects of genome structure and function. These mutations are, however, generated by multiple mutational processes operating through the cellular lineage between the fertilized egg and the cancer cell, each composed of specific DNA damage and repair components and leaving its own characteristic mutational signature on the genome. Using somatic mutation catalogues from 560 breast cancer whole-genome sequences, here we show that each of 12 base substitution, 2 insertion/deletion (indel) and 6 rearrangement mutational signatures present in breast tissue, exhibit distinct relationships with genomic features relating to transcription, DNA replication and chromatin organization. This signature-based approach permits visualization of the genomic distribution of mutational processes associated with APOBEC enzymes, mismatch repair deficiency and homologous recombinational repair deficiency, as well as mutational processes of unknown aetiology. Furthermore, it highlights mechanistic insights including a putative replication-dependent mechanism of APOBEC-related mutagenesis.
|
|
11. |
- Nik-Zainal, Serena, et al.
(author)
-
Landscape of somatic mutations in 560 breast cancer whole-genome sequences
- 2016
-
In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 534:7605, s. 47-54
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We analysed whole-genome sequences of 560 breast cancers to advance understanding of the driver mutations conferring clonal advantage and the mutational processes generating somatic mutations. We found that 93 protein-coding cancer genes carried probable driver mutations. Some non-coding regions exhibited high mutation frequencies, but most have distinctive structural features probably causing elevated mutation rates and do not contain driver mutations. Mutational signature analysis was extended to genome rearrangements and revealed twelve base substitution and six rearrangement signatures. Three rearrangement signatures, characterized by tandem duplications or deletions, appear associated with defective homologous-recombination-based DNA repair: one with deficient BRCA1 function, another with deficient BRCA1 or BRCA2 function, the cause of the third is unknown. This analysis of all classes of somatic mutation across exons, introns and intergenic regions highlights the repertoire of cancer genes and mutational processes operating, and progresses towards a comprehensive account of the somatic genetic basis of breast cancer.
|
|
12. |
- Nik-Zainal, Serena, et al.
(author)
-
Mutational Processes Molding the Genomes of 21 Breast Cancers
- 2012
-
In: Cell. - : Elsevier BV. - 1097-4172 .- 0092-8674. ; 149:5, s. 979-993
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- All cancers carry somatic mutations. The patterns of mutation in cancer genomes reflect the DNA damage and repair processes to which cancer cells and their precursors have been exposed. To explore these mechanisms further, we generated catalogs of somatic mutation from 21 breast cancers and applied mathematical methods to extract mutational signatures of the underlying processes. Multiple distinct single- and double-nucleotide substitution signatures were discernible. Cancers with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations exhibited a characteristic combination of substitution mutation signatures and a distinctive profile of deletions. Complex relationships between somatic mutation prevalence and transcription were detected. A remarkable phenomenon of localized hypermutation, termed "kataegis,'' was observed. Regions of kataegis differed between cancers but usually colocalized with somatic rearrangements. Base substitutions in these regions were almost exclusively of cytosine at TpC dinucleotides. The mechanisms underlying most of these mutational signatures are unknown. However, a role for the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases is proposed.
|
|
13. |
- Nik-Zainal, Serena, et al.
(author)
-
The Life History of 21 Breast Cancers
- 2012
-
In: Cell. - : Elsevier BV. - 1097-4172 .- 0092-8674. ; 149:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cancer evolves dynamically as clonal expansions supersede one another driven by shifting selective pressures, mutational processes, and disrupted cancer genes. These processes mark the genome, such that a cancer's life history is encrypted in the somatic mutations present. We developed algorithms to decipher this narrative and applied them to 21 breast cancers. Mutational processes evolve across a cancer's lifespan, with many emerging late but contributing extensive genetic variation. Subclonal diversification is prominent, and most mutations are found in just a fraction of tumor cells. Every tumor has a dominant subclonal lineage, representing more than 50% of tumor cells. Minimal expansion of these subclones occurs until many hundreds to thousands of mutations have accumulated, implying the existence of long-lived, quiescent cell lineages capable of substantial proliferation upon acquisition of enabling genomic changes. Expansion of the dominant subclone to an appreciable mass may therefore represent the final rate-limiting step in a breast cancer's development, triggering diagnosis.
|
|
14. |
- Shlien, Adam, et al.
(author)
-
Direct Transcriptional Consequences of Somatic Mutation in Breast Cancer
- 2016
-
In: Cell Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 2211-1247. ; 16:7, s. 2032-2046
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Disordered transcriptomes of cancer encompass direct effects of somatic mutation on transcription, coordinated secondary pathway alterations, and increased transcriptional noise. To catalog the rules governing how somatic mutation exerts direct transcriptional effects, we developed an exhaustive pipeline for analyzing RNA sequencing data, which we integrated with whole genomes from 23 breast cancers. Using X-inactivation analyses, we found that cancer cells are more transcriptionally active than intermixed stromal cells. This is especially true in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors. Overall, 59% of substitutions were expressed. Nonsense mutations showed lower expression levels than expected, with patterns characteristic of nonsense-mediated decay. 14% of 4,234 rearrangements caused transcriptional abnormalities, including exon skips, exon reusage, fusions, and premature polyadenylation. We found productive, stable transcription from sense-to-antisense gene fusions and gene-to-intergenic rearrangements, suggesting that these mutation classes drive more transcriptional disruption than previously suspected. Systematic integration of transcriptome with genome data reveals the rules by which transcriptional machinery interprets somatic mutation.
|
|
15. |
- Smid, Marcel, et al.
(author)
-
Breast cancer genome and transcriptome integration implicates specific mutational signatures with immune cell infiltration
- 2016
-
In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 7
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A recent comprehensive whole genome analysis of a large breast cancer cohort was used to link known and novel drivers and substitution signatures to the transcriptome of 266 cases. Here, we validate that subtype-specific aberrations show concordant expression changes for, for example, TP53, PIK3CA, PTEN, CCND1 and CDH1. We find that CCND3 expression levels do not correlate with amplification, while increased GATA3 expression in mutant GATA3 cancers suggests GATA3 is an oncogene. In luminal cases the total number of substitutions, irrespective of type, associates with cell cycle gene expression and adverse outcome, whereas the number of mutations of signatures 3 and 13 associates with immune-response specific gene expression, increased numbers of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and better outcome. Thus, while earlier reports imply that the sheer number of somatic aberrations could trigger an immune-response, our data suggests that substitutions of a particular type are more effective in doing so than others.
|
|
16. |
- Smid, Marcel, et al.
(author)
-
The circular RNome of primary breast cancer
- 2019
-
In: Genome Research. - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1088-9051 .- 1549-5469. ; 29:3, s. 356-366
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of RNAs that is under increasing scrutiny, although their functional roles are debated. We analyzed RNA-seq data of 348 primary breast cancers and developed a method to identify circRNAs that does not rely on unmapped reads or known splice junctions. We identified 95,843 circRNAs, of which 20,441 were found recurrently. Of the circRNAs that match exon boundaries of the same gene, 668 showed a poor or even negative (R <0.2) correlation with the expression level of the linear gene. In silico analysis showed only a minority (8.5%) of circRNAs could be explained by known splicing events. Both these observations suggest that specific regulatory processes for circRNAs exist. We confirmed the presence of circRNAs of CNOT2, CREBBP, and RERE in an independent pool of primary breast cancers. We identified circRNA profiles associated with subgroups of breast cancers and with biological and clinical features, such as amount of tumor lymphocytic infiltrate and proliferation index. siRNA-mediated knockdown of circCNOT2 was shown to significantly reduce viability of the breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and BT-474, further underlining the biological relevance of circRNAs. Furthermore, we found that circular, and not linear, CNOT2 levels are predictive for progression-free survival time to aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy in advanced breast cancer patients, and found that circCNOT2 is detectable in cell-free RNA from plasma. We showed that circRNAs are abundantly present, show characteristics of being specifically regulated, are associated with clinical and biological properties, and thus are relevant in breast cancer.
|
|
17. |
- Staaf, Johan, et al.
(author)
-
Whole-genome sequencing of triple-negative breast cancers in a population-based clinical study
- 2019
-
In: Nature Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-170X .- 1078-8956. ; 25, s. 1526-1533
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) brings comprehensive insights to cancer genome interpretation. To explore the clinical value of WGS, we sequenced 254 triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) for which associated treatment and outcome data were collected between 2010 and 2015 via the population-based Sweden Cancerome Analysis Network-Breast (SCAN-B) project (ClinicalTrials.gov ID:NCT02306096). Applying the HRDetect mutational-signature-based algorithm to classify tumors, 59% were predicted to have homologous-recombination-repair deficiency (HRDetect-high): 67% explained by germline/somatic mutations of BRCA1/BRCA2, BRCA1 promoter hypermethylation, RAD51C hypermethylation or biallelic loss of PALB2. A novel mechanism of BRCA1 abrogation was discovered via germline SINE-VNTR-Alu retrotransposition. HRDetect provided independent prognostic information, with HRDetect-high patients having better outcome on adjuvant chemotherapy for invasive disease-free survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.42; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.2-0.87) and distant relapse-free interval (HR = 0.31, CI = 0.13-0.76) compared to HRDetect-low, regardless of whether a genetic/epigenetic cause was identified. HRDetect-intermediate, some possessing potentially targetable biological abnormalities, had the poorest outcomes. HRDetect-low cancers also had inadequate outcomes: ~4.7% were mismatch-repair-deficient (another targetable defect, not typically sought) and they were enriched for (but not restricted to) PIK3CA/AKT1 pathway abnormalities. New treatment options need to be considered for now-discernible HRDetect-intermediate and HRDetect-low categories. This population-based study advocates for WGS of TNBC to better inform trial stratification and improve clinical decision-making.
|
|
18. |
|
|