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Ongoing genome doubling shapes evolvability and immunity in ovarian cancer
Andrew McPherson1,2, Ignacio Vázquez-García3,4,5,6,7, Matthew A Myers3,4
1Computational Oncology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. mcphera1@mskcc.org.
Whole-genome doubling (WGD) drives cancer evolution and immune evasion in ovarian tumors. This ongoing process impacts tumor diversity, chromosomal instability, and immune suppression, revealing new therapeutic targets.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Cancer Biology
- Immunology
Background:
- Whole-genome doubling (WGD) is prevalent in human cancers, correlating with tumor progression, drug resistance, and metastasis.
- Understanding the role of WGD in cancer's somatic evolution and immune evasion is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of WGD on somatic evolution and immune evasion at single-cell resolution in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
- To characterize the mutational processes and evolutionary trajectories associated with WGD.
Main Methods:
- Single-cell whole-genome sequencing of 70 ovarian cancer samples (30,260 tumor genomes).
- Development of a mutation-based WGD timing method (doubleTime).
- Matched single-cell RNA sequencing and immunofluorescence microscopy.
Main Results:
- WGD is an ongoing mutational process associated with increased cell diversity, chromosomal missegregation, and micronucleation.
- doubleTime delineated diverse WGD timing modes driving tumor evolution.
- WGD-high tumors showed cell-cycle dysregulation, STING1 repression, and immunosuppression, unlike WGD-low tumors with inflammatory signaling.
Conclusions:
- WGD is an active mutational process promoting evolvability in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
- WGD significantly dysregulates tumor immunity, leading to immunosuppressive states.
- Findings highlight WGD's role in cancer progression and suggest potential therapeutic strategies targeting immune evasion.
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