Cited by 1,909Cancer Genomics and DiagnosticsChromatin Remodeling and CancerDNA Repair Mechanisms

Mutational Processes Molding the Genomes of 21 Breast Cancers

Open access
Nik-Zainal, Serena, Alexandrov, Ludmil B., Wedge, David C., Van Loo, Peter, Greenman, Christopher D., Raine, Keiran, Jones, David, Hinton, Jonathan +45 more·2012·Cell

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.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cell.2012.04.024

Cites

64 of 64 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 9

  1. Bignell, G.R., Greenman, C.D., Davies, H., Butler, A.P., Edkins, S., Andrews, J.M., Buck, G., Chen, L., Beare, D., Latimer, C., et al. (2010). Signatures of mutation and selection in the cancer genome. Nature 463, 893–898. PMC3145113 20164919
  2. Campbell, P.J., Stephens, P.J., Pleasance, E.D., O'Meara, S., Li, H., Santarius, T., Stebbings, L.A., Leroy, C., Edkins, S., Hardy, C., et al. (2008). Identification of somatically acquired rearrangements in cancer using genome-wide massively parallel paired-end sequencing. Nat. Genet. 40, 722–729. PMC2705838 18438408
  3. Kozarewa, I., Ning, Z., Quail, M.A., Sanders, M.J., Berriman, M., and Turner, D.J. (2009). Amplification-free Illumina sequencing-library preparation facilitates improved mapping and assembly of (G+C)-biased genomes. Nat. Methods 6, 291–295. PMC2664327 19287394
  4. Lee, D.D., and Seung, H.S. (1999). Learning the parts of objects by non-negative matrix factorization. Nature 401, 788–791. 10548103
  5. Li, H., and Durbin, R. (2009). Fast and accurate short read alignment with Burrows-Wheeler transform. Bioinformatics 25, 1754–1760. PMC2705234 19451168
  6. Pleasance, E.D., Cheetham, R.K., Stephens, P.J., McBride, D.J., Humphray, S.J., Greenman, C.D., Varela, I., Lin, M.L., Ordóñez, G.R., Bignell, G.R., et al. (2010). A comprehensive catalogue of somatic mutations from a human cancer genome. Nature 463, 191–196. PMC3145108 20016485
  7. Stephens, P.J., McBride, D.J., Lin, M.L., Varela, I., Pleasance, E.D., Simpson, J.T., Stebbings, L.A., Leroy, C., Edkins, S., Mudie, L.J., et al. (2009). Complex landscapes of somatic rearrangement in human breast cancer genomes. Nature 462, 1005–1010. PMC3398135 20033038
  8. Van Loo, P., Nordgard, S.H., Lingjærde, O.C., Russnes, H.G., Rye, I.H., Sun, W., Weigman, V.J., Marynen, P., Zetterberg, A., Naume, B., et al. (2010). Allele-specific copy number analysis of tumors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 16910–16915. PMC2947907 20837533
  9. Ye, K., Schulz, M.H., Long, Q., Apweiler, R., and Ning, Z. (2009). Pindel: a pattern growth approach to detect break points of large deletions and medium sized insertions from paired-end short reads. Bioinformatics 25, 2865–2871. PMC2781750 19561018

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Nik-Zainal, S., Alexandrov, L. B., Wedge, D. C., Van Loo, P., Greenman, C. D., Raine, K., Jones, D., Hinton, J., Marshall, J., Stebbings, L. A., Menzies, A., Martin, S., Leung, K., Chen, L., Leroy, C., Ramakrishna, M., Rance, R., Lau, K. W., Mudie, L. J., Varela, I., McBride, D. J., Bignell, G. R., Cooke, S. L., Shlien, A., Gamble, J., Whitmore, I., Maddison, M., Tarpey, P. S., Davies, H. R., Papaemmanuil, E., Stephens, P. J., McLaren, S., Butler, A. P., Teague, J. W., Jönsson, G., Garber, J. E., Silver, D., Miron, P., Fatima, A., Boyault, S., Langerød, A., Tutt, A., Martens, J. W. M., Aparicio, S. A. J. R., Borg, Å., Salomon, A. V., Thomas, G., Børresen-Dale, A.-L., Richardson, A. L., Neuberger, M. S., Futreal, P. A., Campbell, P. J., & Stratton, M. R.
Affiliations
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
  • University of East Anglia (GB)
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (US)
  • Centre Léon Bérard (FR)
  • Oslo University Hospital (NO)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • Erasmus MC (NL)
  • University of British Columbia (CA)
  • Lund University (SE)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (GB)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
Corresponding author
Stratton, Michael R.
Venue
Cell
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2012-05
Volume
149
Issue
5
Pages
979-993
ISSN
0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2129136620
Cited by
1,909
References
64
Citations by year
2026: 75 · 2025: 81 · 2024: 102 · 2023: 148 · 2022: 125 · 2021: 175 · 2020: 141 · 2019: 145 · 2018: 126 · 2017: 146 · 2016: 164 · 2015: 142 · 2014: 147 · 2013: 141 · 2012: 46
FWCI
50.38
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
erratum (2015-08-13)
Open access
Locations
  • Cell (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion)
  • UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (acceptedVersion)
  • EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Lirias (submittedVersion)
  • Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo (cc-by)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust (088340, WT088340MA, 098051)
  • King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research (ICGC 08/09)
  • King's College London
  • European Commission (242006)
  • Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
  • Norges Forskningsråd
  • Vlaamse regering
  • National Research Council Canada
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBS/E/T/000PR6193)
  • BC Cancer Agency
  • National Cancer Institute (CA 089393, P50CA089393)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Chromatin Remodeling and Cancer
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA Repair Mechanisms
Keywords
breast cancer, somatic mutations, mutational signatures, DNA damage and repair, BRCA1, BRCA2, kataegis, somatic rearrangements, APOBEC cytidine deaminases
MeSH terms
APOBEC-1 Deaminase, Breast Neoplasms, Cytidine Deaminase, DNA Mutational Analysis, Female, Humans, Mutation, Genes, BRCA1, BRCA2 Protein, Genome-Wide Association Study, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review