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. 2023 Jun 22:S0092-8674(23)00646-3.
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.06.006. Online ahead of print.

Loss of chromosome Y in primary tumors

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Free article

Loss of chromosome Y in primary tumors

Meifang Qi et al. Cell. .
Free article

Abstract

Certain cancer types afflict female and male patients disproportionately. The reasons include differences in male/female physiology, effect of sex hormones, risk behavior, environmental exposures, and genetics of the sex chromosomes X and Y. Loss of Y (LOY) is common in peripheral blood cells in aging men, and this phenomenon is associated with several diseases. However, the frequency and role of LOY in tumors is little understood. Here, we present a comprehensive catalog of LOY in >5,000 primary tumors from male patients in the TCGA. We show that LOY rates vary by tumor type and provide evidence for LOY being either a passenger or driver event depending on context. LOY in uveal melanoma specifically is associated with age and survival and is an independent predictor of poor outcome. LOY creates common dependencies on DDX3X and EIF1AX in male cell lines, suggesting that LOY generates unique vulnerabilities that could be therapeutically exploited.

Keywords: Y chromosome; cancer genomics; sex chromosome; somatic copy number variation; uveal melanoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests A.A.L. is a consultant for Qiagen. A.A.L. received research support from AbbVie and Stemline Therapeutics. J.P. is currently an employee of the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Shanghai 200232, China. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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