{
  "id": 18177750,
  "title": "Pervasive chromothripsis drives pleural mesothelioma to impact gene function and patient survival",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/04/pervasive-chromothripsis-drives-pleural-mesothelioma-to-impact-gene",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-11-04T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.04.762854v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is a complex tumor type, and researchers have now mapped out its genetic landscape using a large cohort of 443 patients. The study reveals that most genetic alterations in PM are caused by copy number alterations (CNAs), and a significant number of tumors exhibit complex rearrangements. The most common of these are chromothripsis (74% of cases) and chromoplexy (59%).\n\nChromothripsis, a catastrophic event in which a chromosome undergoes multiple breaks and rearrangements in a single event, plays a critical role in driving genetic changes in PM. This process leads to the deletion of known tumor suppressor genes, including CDKN2A, NF2, and BAP1. These genes are believed to be among the earliest events in the development of PM. Furthermore, the presence of chromothripsis in PM tumors is associated with significantly poorer patient survival rates.\n\nThe study also uncovers a complex interplay between the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes during the evolution of PM. This involves alterations to both genomes, as well as changes in mitochondrial expression levels. These findings shed light on the multifaceted nature of PM, highlighting the importance of considering both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes in understanding this devastating disease.",
  "summary": "Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is a tumour type showing high structural complexity but the full spectrum of variants present and their impacts are poorly understood. We comprehensively describe the mutational landscape of mesothelioma, exploiting a large (N=443) cohort profiling the tumour genome and transcriptome in parallel. We find that the majority of candidate driver variants are mediated by copy…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}