Big step toward identifying all cancer-causing genetic mutations

More is sure to come! This is only the beginning! What an effort!

"The ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Project (PCAWG, or the Pan-Cancer Project), a collaboration involving more than 1,300 scientists and clinicians from 37 countries, analyzed more than 2,600 whole genomes of 38 different tumor types — the largest publicly available whole-genome dataset in the cancer genomics field. ... Previous cancer genome studies focused on the 1 percent of the genome that codes for proteins, known as the exome. The Pan-Cancer Project explored the remaining 99 percent of the genome, which includes regions that regulate the activity of genes. ... the collaborators collated and standardized existing genomic data from the consortium’s hundreds of research groups around the world. ... Prior to these studies, 30 percent of tumors had unexplained genetic causes, but by analyzing the entire tumor genome, the consortium scientists discovered more driver mutations, leaving only 5 percent of tumors with no known drivers. ... The scientists were surprised to find so few of these non-coding drivers, given that 99 percent of the genome is non-coding. The team discovered that only 13 percent of drivers identified in this analysis were non-coding."

Big step toward identifying all cancer-causing genetic mutations – Harvard Gazette: An international team of 1,300 scientists has generated the most complete cancer genome map to date, bringing researchers closer to identifying all major cancer-causing genetic mutations.