The cancer Gene Census is an ongoing effort to catalogue those genes for which mutations have been causally implicated in cancer. The original census and analysis was published in Nature Reviews Cancer and supplemental analysis information related to the paper is also available.

The census is not static but rather is updated regularly/as needed. In particular we are grateful to Felix Mitelman and his colleagues in providing information on more genes involved in uncommon translocations in leukaemias and lymphomas. Currently, more than 1% of all human genes are implicated via mutation in cancer. Of these, approximately 90% have somatic mutations in cancer, 20% bear germline mutations that predispose to cancer and 10% show both somatic and germline mutations.

Analysis published in Nature Reviews Cancer 2004

Number of proteins in the cancer set with pfam domains. The protein domains encoded by cancer genes have been compared to the domains encoded by randomly selected human genes (Table 2). The most common Pfam domain encoded by cancer genes is the protein kinase domain which is approximately four-fold overrepresented amongst cancer genes compared to randomly selected human genes. Domains involved in DNA binding, transcriptional regulation and DNA repair are also common amongst cancer genes and overrepresented compared to randomly selected human genes.

Number of cancer proteins containing specific pfam domains within specific cancer subsets. We have compared the protein domains encoded by cancer genes according to whether mutations in the cancer gene act in a dominant or recessive manner, whether the mutations are somatic or present in the germline, the tumour types in which the mutations are found and the classes of mutation (Table 3).

Significance of number of proteins with pfam domains within specific cancer sub-classes. Table 4 shows the p values of the significant results from the comparisons performed in Table 3. Where there are no p values, the results were not significant.

1. The working set of Cancer Genes : Table 1

2. Pfam domains - in the cancer genes : Table 2

3. Pfam domains - by cancer gene type : Table 3

4. Pfam domains - significance : Table 4