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Updated: Oct 2, 2025

Detection of Copy Number Alterations Using Single Cell Sequencing
Published on: February 17, 2017
Copy number alteration signatures as biomarkers in cancer: a review
Conor Giles Doran1, Stephen R Pennington1
1UCD Conway Institute, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Abstract:
Within certain cancers, extensive copy number alterations (CNAs) contribute to a complex and heterogenic genomic profile. This makes it difficult to understand and unravel the distinct molecular dynamics shaping the disease while preventing clinically effective patient stratification. CNA signature analysis represents a novel genomic stratification tool for probing this complexity, offering an intricate framework for deriving CNA patterns at the molecular level. This allows the underlying genomic mechanisms of specific cancers to be revealed, leading to the potential identification of therapeutic targets and prognostic associations. This review outlines the molecular and methodological basis of CNA signatures and focuses on recent advances highlighting their clinical utility, limitations and prospective future as novel diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarkers.
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