Cancer-related and cancer "not-related" mutated genes

Question

[Bnf83]

Hi guys, I'm wondering how many (%) genes in the genome carry mutations that are not cancer-related? Specifically...all we know that there are mutated genes like TP53 or MYC or others that are mutated in cancer and we know that the occurrence of the mutation is causally involved in the disease. But a large fraction of genes in the genome carry mutations not cancer-related or better, whose involvement in cancer is still unknown. Do you know how many genes (in %) fall into this second "category"?

Best regards

B

[GenoMax]

This (doi:10.1038/nature17676) paper published today may have an answer for your question (for breast cancer atleast).

Answer 1

[jotan]

The short answer is no.

The long answer is that there will be a lot of variability between different cancers. DNA damage checkpoints are often mutated early in cancers, which compromises genome fidelity. This means that cancer cells will have much higher mutation rates compared to normal healthy cells. The degree and rate of mutation will vary greatly depending on which pathways have been compromised. Some cancers can be so severely compromised that the entire genome is subjected to gross chromosomal rearrangements (e.g. ALT cancers).

If you want to narrow the field, you might want to look into "passenger mutations" which are incidental mutations which happen to segregate with oncogenic driver mutations.