Cited by 9,660Cancer Genomics and DiagnosticsChromatin Remodeling and CancerDNA Repair Mechanisms

Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer

Open access
Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative, Alexandrov, Ludmil B., ICGC Breast Cancer Consortium, ICGC MMML-Seq Consortium, ICGC PedBrain, Nik-Zainal, Serena, Wedge, David C., Aparicio, Samuel A. J. R. +66 more·2013·Nature

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.

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Authors
Initiative, A. P. C. G., Alexandrov, L. B., ICGC Breast Cancer Consortium, ICGC MMML-Seq Consortium, PedBrain, I., Nik-Zainal, S., Wedge, D. C., Aparicio, S. A. J. R., Behjati, S., Biankin, A. V., Bignell, G. R., Bolli, N., Borg, A., Børresen-Dale, A.-L., Boyault, S., Burkhardt, B., Butler, A. P., Caldas, C., Davies, H. R., Desmedt, C., Eils, R., Eyfjörd, J. E., Foekens, J. A., Greaves, M., Hosoda, F., Hutter, B., Ilicic, T., Imbeaud, S., Imielinski, M., Jäger, N., Jones, D. T. W., Jones, D., Knappskog, S., Kool, M., Lakhani, S. R., López-Otín, C., Martin, S., Munshi, N. C., Nakamura, H., Northcott, P. A., Pajic, M., Papaemmanuil, E., Paradiso, A., Pearson, J. V., Puente, X. S., Raine, K., Ramakrishna, M., Richardson, A. L., Richter, J., Rosenstiel, P., Schlesner, M., Schumacher, T. N., Span, P. N., Teague, J. W., Totoki, Y., Tutt, A. N. J., Valdés-Mas, R., van Buuren, M. M., van ’t Veer, L., Vincent-Salomon, A., Waddell, N., Yates, L. R., Zucman-Rossi, J., Andrew Futreal, P., McDermott, U., Lichter, P., Meyerson, M., Grimmond, S. M., Siebert, R., Campo, E., Shibata, T., Pfister, S. M., Campbell, P. J., & Stratton, M. R.
Affiliations
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
  • BC Cancer Agency (CA)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • Garvan Institute of Medical Research (AU)
  • Lund University (SE)
  • Oslo University Hospital (NO)
  • Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
  • Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE)
  • German Cancer Research Center (DE)
  • Erasmus MC Cancer Institute (NL)
  • Inserm (FR)
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
  • Universidad de Oviedo (ES)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • National Cancer Center Research Institute (JP)
  • University of Glasgow (GB)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NL)
  • Radboud University Medical Center (NL)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE)
Corresponding author
Stratton, Michael R.
Venue
Nature
Published
2013-08-14
Volume
500
Issue
7463
Pages
415-421
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2152061559
Cited by
9,660
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 384 · 2025: 552 · 2024: 643 · 2023: 854 · 2022: 921 · 2021: 1119 · 2020: 1130 · 2019: 939 · 2018: 873 · 2017: 815 · 2016: 660 · 2015: 421 · 2014: 286 · 2013: 45 · 2012: 2
FWCI
165.61
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
erratum (2013-10-09)
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
  • EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
  • EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Consultation of the Doctoral Thesis Database (TESEO) (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Dépôt institutionnel de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles) (submittedVersion)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
  • Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
  • OPUS (Augsburg University) (submittedVersion)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion)
  • Apollo
Funders
  • Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (69120)
  • Wellcome Trust (088340, 093867, 098051)
  • Broad Institute
  • Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
  • Cancer Research UK
  • University of Glasgow
  • Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-LABX-0015)
  • Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
  • University of New South Wales
  • Lunds Universitet
  • Universitetet i Oslo
  • Háskóli Íslands
  • Universitat de Barcelona
  • BC Cancer Agency
  • Labex Immuno-Oncology
  • Medisinske fakultet, Universitetet i Oslo
  • Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge
  • National Cancer Institute (T32CA009216)
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
mutational signatures, somatic mutations, cancer genome, APOBEC cytidine deaminases, kataegis, hypermutation, patient age, cancer etiology, cancer types
MeSH terms
Aging, Algorithms, Cell Transformation, Neoplastic, Cytidine Deaminase, DNA, DNA Mutational Analysis, Humans, Models, Genetic, Mutagens, Mutation, Neoplasms, Organ Specificity, Transcription, Genetic, Reproducibility of Results, Mutagenesis, Insertional, Mutagenesis, Sequence Deletion

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