# Integrated genomic analyses of ovarian carcinoma (The Cancer Genome Atlas)

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-tcga-ovarian-nature-2011/  
OnCo record `paper-tcga-ovarian-nature-2011` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Sequencing nearly 500 high-grade serous ovarian cancers showed that almost all carry TP53 mutations and about half have defects in homologous recombination DNA repair, the biology that PARP inhibitors exploit.

## Summary

Integrated genomic analysis by The Cancer Genome Atlas of 489 high-grade serous ovarian adenocarcinomas, finding TP53 mutations in 96 percent, germline or somatic BRCA1/2 mutations in about 20 percent, homologous recombination defects in about half, widespread copy-number changes, and four transcriptional subtypes.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Journal: Nature
- Year: 2011
- DOI: 10.1038/nature10166
- Authors: Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network.
- Findings: TP53 mutated in 96 percent of high-grade serous ovarian cancers.; Homologous recombination pathway defects in about 50 percent, including BRCA1/2 in about 20 percent.
- What it means: The homologous recombination deficiency concept, and the case for testing all high-grade serous cancers for BRCA and related defects, come from this dataset.
- Caveats: Research-grade profiling of primary tumours; clinical homologous recombination deficiency assays came later.

## Sources

- Nature 2011: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10166
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21720365/

## Connected records

- cancers: [High-grade serous ovarian cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/high-grade-serous-ovarian-cancer/)
- journals: [Nature](https://onco.cc/journals/nature/)

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