Diverse somatic mutation patterns and pathway alterations in human cancers

The systematic characterization of somatic mutations in cancer genomes is essential for understanding the disease and for developing targeted therapeutics. Here we report the identification of 2,576 somatic mutations across approximately 1,800 megabases of DNA representing 1,507 coding genes from 441 tumours comprising breast, lung, ovarian and prostate cancer types and subtypes. Additionally, 373 tumors were assayed for copy number alterations via Agilent 244A CGH arrays and 153 breast, lung, and colon samples were assayed for mRNA abundance with Affymetrix HuEx1 Exon Arrays. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below. Overall design: Refer to individual Series.