BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Cancer genome statistics lesson

July 18, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has upgraded its original algorithm for cancer genome analysis to account for gene-specific differences in mutation rates.1 Application of the improved algorithm could help identify previously overlooked mutations, and in one type of cancer it already allowed the researchers to narrow down the number of associated mutations.

Numerous large-scale cancer genome sequencing projects launched in the past decade are beginning to generate a wealth of genetic data on a growing number of tumor types. Interpretation of these data has required the development of new statistical approaches to help identify somatic mutations in tumors that are significantly associated with disease...