DR-041 Quantification and characterization of clustered somatic mutations throughout the pan-cancer metastatic landscape using our custom algorithm KatDetect

Cancer is driven by accumulation of single DNA mutations, but also by catastrophic events involving multiple simultaneous changes. One such catastrophic event is called kataegis (thunder), which concerns multiple DNA mutations occurring in a small region of the DNA. Using Hartwig Medical Foundation whole-genome repository, we can improve our sophisticated computational methods to better detect such somatic events in cancer patients. By identifying and characterizing these events in cancer we gain insight in the molecular mechanisms that give rise to kataegis. These molecular insights will improve our understanding of the biology of (metastatic) cancer.

Harmen van der Werken Erasmus MC the Netherlands