Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Sequence of events in prostate cancer

Whole-genome sequencing reveals the duplication of a regulatory region, called an enhancer, of the AR gene in treatment-resistant human prostate cancers. The finding shows the importance of analysing non-protein-coding regions of DNA.
  1. Kellie A. Cotter

    1. Kellie A. Cotter is in the Department for BioMedical Research, University of Bern, CH-3008 Bern, Switzerland, and at Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Mark A. Rubin

    1. Mark A. Rubin is in the Department for BioMedical Research, University of Bern, CH-3008 Bern, Switzerland, at Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland, and at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The publication1,2 of the human genome sequence in 2001 was accompanied by optimism that a rise in the availability of genomic data might improve clinical treatments. It was hoped that such data might one day enable an approach termed ‘precision medicine’, in which therapies are tailored to target the abnormalities specific to a particular cancer. Since then, technological advances in DNA-sequencing techniques, combined with substantially lower costs, have led to a boom in the sequencing of cancer samples. Given this progress, one might assume that the key genetic alterations that drive common cancers are already well known. However, writing in Cell, Takeda et al.3, Viswanathan et al.4 and Quigley et al.5 detail a previously unidentified type of genetic alteration that frequently occurs in late-stage human prostate cancer.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 560, 557-559 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06029-5

References

  1. International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium. Nature 409, 860–921 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Venter, J. C. et al. Science 291, 1304–1351 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Takeda, D. Y. et al. Cell 174, 422–432 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Viswanathan, S. R. et al. Cell 174, 433–447 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Quigley, D. A. et al. Cell 174, 758–769 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Weinhold, N., Jacobsen, A., Schultz, N., Sander, C. & Lee, W. Nature Genet. 46, 1160–1165 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Taplin, M.-E. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 332, 1393–1398 (1995).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Visakorpi, T. et al. Nature Genet. 9, 401–406 (1995).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Armenia, J. et al. Nature Genet. 50, 645–651 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Kumar, A. et al. Nature Med. 22, 369–378 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Aggarwal, R. et al. Eur. Urol. Focus 2, 469–471 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Holmes, M. G. et al. J. Vasc. Interv. Radiol. 28, 1073–1081 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Glodzik, D. et al. Nature Genet. 49, 341–348 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Herranz, D. et al. Nature Med. 20, 1130–1137 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Shi, J. et al. Genes Dev. 27, 2648–2662 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Zhang, X. et al. Nature Genet. 48, 176–182 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Baca, S. C. et al. Cell 153, 666–677 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links