DR-482 Decoding the role of complex genomic rearrangements in driving metastasis, cancer genome evolution and drug resistance

Over the last years, my laboratory has revealed that cancer genomes are riddled by complex forms of structural variants (SVs), which delete, amplify and reorder the DNA in cancer cells. Complex SVs underpin most mutations that cause primary cancers. Yet, our understanding of the underlying mutational processes that generate them and what is their role during metastatic spread and drug resistance remains limited. Here, we will characterize the patterns and consequences of complex SVs at the pan-cancer level using whole-genome sequencing data from  metastatic samples. This will allow us to study which SV processes are active in metastatic tumours and their role in drug resistance, which might open new avenues to interfere with the metastatic process and improve outcomes for advanced cancer patients.

sidro Cortes-Ciriano, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany