Attack of the Subclones: Accurate Detection of Mutational Heterogeneity in Bulk DNA from Tumors

Abstract

Tumors are often polyclonal and are therefore heterogenous in their genomic and molecular profiles, which contributes to drug resistance and treatment failure. The methods used to detect these heterogenous differences in tumor samples are critical, but findings have been hindered by methodological inability to detect low-frequency subclones in bulk DNA. Chang etal. (2020) have addressed some of these methodological issues.