Editor's Summary
8 March 2007
Cancer gene haul
Over 350 cancer-causing genes have been identified by established techniques such as mapping, bioassay and by identifying plausible biological candidates. The availability of the human genome sequence now means that large-scale sequencing studies can uncover many more candidate cancer genes. Protein kinase enzymes are key to many regulatory processes and their dysfunction is a common trigger for tumours. So a sample of 518 kinases associated with more than 200 different cancers was chosen for a major sequencing effort. The study reveals more than 1, 000 previously unknown mutations linked to tumour formation — some as 'passengers' that don't contribute to cancer formation, but over 100 of them as 'driver' mutations that do contribute to disease development. As well as revealing cancer-causing defects, gene family studies like this can uncover new targets for molecular diagnostics and therapeutics.
News and Views: Cancer: Drivers and passengers
Studies that have provided the first unbiased, large-scale analyses of DNA mutations across an array of cancers also have lessons for the proposal to annotate the entire cancer genome.
Daniel A. Haber and Jeff Settleman
doi:10.1038/446145a
Article: Patterns of somatic mutation in human cancer genomes
Christopher Greenman, Philip Stephens, Raffaella Smith, Gillian L. Dalgliesh, Christopher Hunter, Graham Bignell, Helen Davies, Jon Teague, Adam Butler, Claire Stevens, Sarah Edkins, Sarah O'Meara, Imre Vastrik, Esther E. Schmidt, Tim Avis, Syd Barthorpe, Gurpreet Bhamra, Gemma Buck, Bhudipa Choudhury, Jody Clements, Jennifer Cole, Ed Dicks, Simon Forbes, Kris Gray, Kelly Halliday, Rachel Harrison, Katy Hills, Jon Hinton, Andy Jenkinson, David Jones, Andy Menzies, Tatiana Mironenko, Janet Perry, Keiran Raine, Dave Richardson, Rebecca Shepherd, Alexandra Small, Calli Tofts, Jennifer Varian, Tony Webb, Sofie West, Sara Widaa, Andy Yates, Daniel P. Cahill, David N. Louis, Peter Goldstraw, Andrew G. Nicholson, Francis Brasseur, Leendert Looijenga, Barbara L. Weber, Yoke-Eng Chiew, Anna deFazio, Mel F. Greaves, Anthony R. Green, Peter Campbell, Ewan Birney, Douglas F. Easton, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Min-Han Tan, Sok Kean Khoo, Bin Tean Teh, Siu Tsan Yuen, Suet Yi Leung, Richard Wooster, P. Andrew Futreal and Michael R. Stratton
doi:10.1038/nature05610
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (281K) | Supplementary information
