Integrated signatures define mutational processes in prostate cancer.

TitleIntegrated signatures define mutational processes in prostate cancer.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2026
AuthorsGruber AJ, Olsen AV, Hernando B, Cheng KCL, Gerhäuser C, Torres M, Favero F, Kiriy D, Fernández-Sanromán Á, Roldan-Romero JMaria, Barton L, Pellegrina D, G Bova S, Brewer DS, Brook MN, Brors B, Butler A, Cancel-Tassin G, Corcoran NM, Cussenot O, Gihawi A, Girma EG, Gnanapragasam VJ, Hamid AA, Hayes VM, He HHansen, Hovens CM, Imada EL, G Jakobsdottir M, Jung C-H, Khani F, Kote-Jarai Z, Lamy P, Leeman G, Loda M, Lutsik P, Marchionni L, Molania R, Papenfuss AT, Pope B, Queiroz LR, Rausch T, Robinson B, Sahli A, Sørensen KD, Yamaguchi TN, Uhrig S, Xu Y, Zanettini C, Simon R, Sauter G, Eeles RA, Cooper CS, Bristow RG, Wedge DC, Schlomm T, Macintyre G, Reimand J, Weischenfeldt J
Corporate AuthorsPan Prostate Cancer Group(PPCG)
JournalNature
Date Published2026 Sep 09
ISSN1476-4687
Abstract

Prostate cancer follows a long and heterogeneous disease course with incompletely understood aetiology1. Here we dissect the mutational processes shaping the genomes of 959 donors from the Pan Prostate Cancer Group and assess their clinical relevance. By integrating de novo extracted single-base substitution, insertion-deletion and copy-number signatures with six novel complex structural variant signatures, we identify eight integrated mutational footprints (IMFs) that collectively explain the mutational processes in 85% of primary prostate cancer genomes. IMFs were strongly influenced by regional biases in the genome, most prevalently androgen receptor-mediated mutagenesis and replication stress. Four IMFs, present in 37% of primary tumours, were significantly associated with shorter time to metastasis. These included reactive oxygen-species-driven mutagenesis and both canonical and non-canonical homologous recombination deficiency, the latter being enriched in patients of African ancestry. Extending to the metastatic setting, we found that IMFs predicted sensitivity to androgen receptor pathway inhibitors. Taken together, our study delineates the aetiologies and mutational processes that drive the genomic and clinical heterogeneity of prostate cancer, introduces IMFs as a unifying framework, and highlights their potential to improve both risk stratification and biomarker-guided treatment selection.

DOI10.1038/s41586-026-10468-w
Alternate JournalNature
PubMed ID42717097
PubMed Central ID10851915