DR-133 Pan-cancer investigation of cancer evolution and tumour evolutionary trajectories

Cancer is a complex disease, characterized by a wide spectrum of genome abnormalities. We aim to describe the order and magnitude of carcinogenic events (mutations and copy number changes). This will allow us to construct evolutionary trajectories for individual cancer types. Using the Hartwig Medical Foundation’s data on metastatic cancer samples, we wish to explore the last step in the transformation of the normal cell to lethal disseminated metastatic cancer. By deciphering cancer evolutionary trajectories we may be able to develop tools that can predict how cancer evolves in the presence of therapy, and determine cancer phenotypes associated with response. This may allow for improved patient treatment through stratification.

Nicolai Juul Birkbak Aarhus University Denmark