Identifying Candidate Cancer Genes Based on Their Somatic Mutations Co-Occurring with Cancer Genes in Cancer Genome Profiling

After decades of searching, only 10-20% of all cancer genes are known. Identifying candidate cancer genes are still a central aim of cancer research. In current high throughput studies of screening somatic mutations in cancer genome, only genes mutated more frequently than what would be expected by chance are determined as candidate cancer genes. However, mutations of multiple genes participating in different pathways are suggested to be synergistic in conferring selection advantages to the tumor. Here, considering the cooperation of multiple cancer genes during tumorigenesis, we identified 23 candidate cancer genes co-mutated with known cancer genes in the same cancer samples significantly more frequently than expected by random chance. The potential roles of these candidate cancer genes in tumorigenesis are strongly supported by literatures.