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1: Nature. 2008 Nov 6;456(7218):66-72.
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DNA sequencing of a cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukaemia genome.

Ley TJ, Mardis ER, Ding L, Fulton B, McLellan MD, Chen K, Dooling D, Dunford-Shore BH, McGrath S, Hickenbotham M, Cook L, Abbott R, Larson DE, Koboldt DC, Pohl C, Smith S, Hawkins A, Abbott S, Locke D, Hillier LW, Miner T, Fulton L, Magrini V, Wylie T, Glasscock J, Conyers J, Sander N, Shi X, Osborne JR, Minx P, Gordon D, Chinwalla A, Zhao Y, Ries RE, Payton JE, Westervelt P, Tomasson MH, Watson M, Baty J, Ivanovich J, Heath S, Shannon WD, Nagarajan R, Walter MJ, Link DC, Graubert TA, DiPersio JF, Wilson RK.

Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.

Acute myeloid leukaemia is a highly malignant haematopoietic tumour that affects about 13,000 adults in the United States each year. The treatment of this disease has changed little in the past two decades, because most of the genetic events that initiate the disease remain undiscovered. Whole-genome sequencing is now possible at a reasonable cost and timeframe to use this approach for the unbiased discovery of tumour-specific somatic mutations that alter the protein-coding genes. Here we present the results obtained from sequencing a typical acute myeloid leukaemia genome, and its matched normal counterpart obtained from the same patient's skin. We discovered ten genes with acquired mutations; two were previously described mutations that are thought to contribute to tumour progression, and eight were new mutations present in virtually all tumour cells at presentation and relapse, the function of which is not yet known. Our study establishes whole-genome sequencing as an unbiased method for discovering cancer-initiating mutations in previously unidentified genes that may respond to targeted therapies.

Publication Types:
PMID: 18987736 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2603574 [Available on 2009/05/06]