Genomics alterations of metastatic and primary tissues across 15 cancer types

Abstract

Metastasis is an important event for cancer evolution and prognosis. In this article, we analyzed the differences in genomic alterations between primary and metastatic tissues at hotspot regions in 15 cancer types and 10,456 samples. Differential somatic mutations at the amino acid, protein domain and gene levels, mutational exclusiveness, and copy number variations were identified in these cancers, while no significant nucleotide and gene fusion differences were detected. The homogeneity and heterogeneity of these differences in cancers were also detected. By characterizing the genomic alterations of these genes, important signaling pathways during metastasis were also identified. In summary, the metastatic cancer tissues retained most genomic features of the primary tumor at the biological level and acquired new signatures during cancer cell migration.