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Finding cancer driver mutations in the era of big data research

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Abstract

In the last decade, the costs of genome sequencing have decreased considerably. The commencement of large-scale cancer sequencing projects has enabled cancer genomics to join the big data revolution. One of the challenges still facing cancer genomics research is determining which are the driver mutations in an individual cancer, as these contribute only a small subset of the overall mutation profile of a tumour. Focusing primarily on somatic single nucleotide mutations in this review, we consider both coding and non-coding driver mutations, and discuss how such mutations might be identified from cancer sequencing datasets. We describe some of the tools and database that are available for the annotation of somatic variants and the identification of cancer driver genes. We also address the use of genome-wide variation in mutation load to establish background mutation rates from which to identify driver mutations under positive selection. Finally, we describe the ways in which mutational signatures can act as clues for the identification of cancer drivers, as these mutations may cause, or arise from, certain mutational processes. By defining the molecular changes responsible for driving cancer development, new cancer treatment strategies may be developed or novel preventative measures proposed.

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  1. Rebecca C. Poulos

    Present address: Children’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prince of Wales Clinical School and Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Rebecca C. Poulos & Jason W. H. Wong

  2. School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong

    Jason W. H. Wong

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  1. Rebecca C. Poulos
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Correspondence to Rebecca C. Poulos.

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R.C.P is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. J.W.H.W. is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT130100096) and a National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant (APP1119932).

Conflicts of interest

Rebecca C. Poulos declares that she has no conflict of interest. Jason W.H. Wong declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of a Special Issue on ‘Big Data’ edited by Joshua WK Ho and Eleni Giannoulatou.

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Poulos, R.C., Wong, J.W.H. Finding cancer driver mutations in the era of big data research. Biophys Rev 11, 21–29 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-018-0415-6

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