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The landscape of chromothripsis across adult cancer types

Chromothripsis is a recently identified mutational phenomenon, by which a presumably single catastrophic event generates extensive genomic rearrangements of one or a few chromosome(s). Considered as an early event in tumour development, this form of genome instability plays a prominent role in tumour onset. Chromothripsis prevalence might have been underestimated when using low-resolution methods, and pan-cancer studies based on sequencing are rare. We analysed chromothripsis in 28 tumour types covering all major adult cancers (634 tumours, 316 whole-genome and 318 whole-exome sequences). We show that chromothripsis affects a substantial proportion of human cancers, with a prevalence of 49% across all cases. Chromothripsis generates entity-specific genomic alterations driving tumour development, including clinically relevant druggable fusions. Chromothripsis is linked with specific telomere patterns and univocal mutational signatures in distinct tumour entities. Longitudinal analysis of chromothriptic patterns in 24 matched tumour pairs reveals novel insights in the clonal evolution of tumours with chromothripsis. (H021)

Click on a Dataset ID in the table below to learn more, and to find out who to contact about access to these data

Dataset ID Description Technology Samples
EGAD00001009272 Illumina HiSeq 2000 Illumina HiSeq 2500 Illumina HiSeq 4000 233
EGAD00001009273 Illumina HiSeq 2000 Illumina HiSeq 2500 Illumina HiSeq 4000 86
EGAD00001009274 HiSeq X Ten Illumina HiSeq 4000 319
EGAD00001009275 HiSeq X Ten 56
EGAD00001009276 Illumina HiSeq 2000 Illumina HiSeq 2500 Illumina HiSeq 4000 74
EGAD00001009277 HiSeq X Ten 40
EGAD00001009278 Illumina HiSeq 2500 Illumina HiSeq 4000 242
EGAD00001009279 HiSeq X Ten 218
Publications Citations
The landscape of chromothripsis across adult cancer types.
Nat Commun 11: 2020 2320
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