Prostate Cancer Genome Sequencing Project. Homo sapiens

Prostate cancer is a prevalent cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in men. In order to characterize the full range of somatic mutations in protein-coding genes that may drive the growth of prostate cancer, we sequenced the exonic regions of genomic and tumor DNA from over 100 patients with high-risk primary prostate cancer. Using hybrid capture and paired end DNA sequencing, we identified mutations in several novel putative prostate cancer genes. We interrogated copy number changes across tumor genomes using high-density SNP arrays, and identified a molecular subtype of cancer characterized by mutation of the ubiquitin ligase subunit SPOP and copy number loss at specific genomic loci.