The evolutionary history of 2,658 cancers
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 G. Deshwar, Jeff Wintersinger, Kortine Kleinheinz, Ignacio Vázquez-Garćıa, Kerstin Haase, Lara Jerman, Subhajit Sengupta, Geoff Macintyre, Salem Malikić, Nilgun Donmez, Dimitri Livitz, Marek Cmero, Jonas Demeulemeester, Steven E. Schumacher, Yu Fan, Xiaotong Yao, Juhee Lee, Matthias Schlesner, Paul C. Boutros, David D.L. Bowtell, Hongtu Zhu, Gad Getz, Marcin Imieliński, Rameen Beroukhim, S. Cenk Şahinalp, Yuan Ji, Martin Peifer, Florian Markowetz, Ville Mustonen, Ke Yuan, Wenyi Wang, Quaid D. Morris, PCAWG Evolution & Heterogeneity Working Group, Stefan C. Dentro, Ignaty Leshchiner, Moritz Gerstung, Clemency Jolly, Kerstin Haase, Maxime Tarabichi, Jeff Wintersinger, Amit G. Deshwar, Kaixian Yu, Santiago Gonzalez, Yulia Rubanova, Geoff Macintyre, David J. Adams, Pavana Anur, Rameen Beroukhim, Paul C. Boutros, David D.L. Bowtell, Peter J. Campbell, Shaolong Cao, Elizabeth L. Christie, Marek Cmero, Yupeng Cun, Kevin J. Dawson, Jonas Demeulemeester, Nilgun Donmez, Ruben M. Drews, Roland Eils, Yu Fan, Matthew W. Fittall, Dale W. Garsed, Gad Getz, Gavin Ha, Marcin Imieliński, Lara Jerman, Yuan Ji, Kortine Kleinheinz, Juhee Lee, Henry Lee-Six, Dimitri Livitz, Salem Malikić, Florian Markowetz, Iñigo Martincorena, Thomas J. Mitchell, Ville Mustonen, Layla Oesper, Martin Peifer, Myron Peto, Benjamin J. Raphael, Daniel Rosebrock, S. Cenk Şahinalp, Adriana Salcedo, Matthias Schlesner, Steven E. Schumacher, Subhajit Sengupta, Ruian Shi, Seung Jun Shin
Abstract
Abstract Cancer develops through a process of somatic evolution 1,2 . 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 processes 3 . 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.