Approximate number of driver mutations needed to cause cancer by area of the body
The results show the number of mutations driving cancer varies considerably across different cancer types. For the first time, scientists have provided unbiased estimates of the number of mutations needed for cancers to develop, in a study of more than 7,500 tumours across 29 cancer types. Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators adapted a technique from the field of evolution to confirm that, on average, one to ten driver mutations are needed for cancer to emerge.
In the future, such approaches could be used in the clinic to identify which few mutations in an individual patient are driving his or her cancer, from amongst the thousands of mutations present...
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