Genome reorganization in different cancer types: detection of cancer specific breakpoint regions

BACKGROUND: Tumorigenesis is a multi-step process which is accompanied by substantial changes in genome organization. The development of these changes is not only a random process, but rather comprise specific DNA regions that are prone to the reorganization process. RESULTS: We have analyzed previously published SNP arrays from three different cancer types (pancreatic adenocarcinoma, breast cancer and metastatic melanoma) and from non-malignant control samples. We calculated segmental copy number variations as well as breakpoint regions. Some of these regions were not randomly involved in genome reorganization since we detected fifteen of them in at least 20% of all tumor samples and one region on chromosome 9 where 43% of tumors have a breakpoint. Further, the top-15 breakpoint regions show an association to known fragile sites. The relevance of these common breakpoint regions was further confirmed by analyzing SNP arrays from 917 cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: Our analyses suggest that genome reorganization is common in tumorigenesis and that some breakpoint regions can be found across all cancer types, while others exclusively occur in specific entities.