ABSOLUTE analysis of SCNAs demonstrated that many of the copy-number alterations analyzed were fixed in the cancer lineage represented in the sample (Fig. 3). This was recapitulated in ovarian cancer by somatic point-mutations, many of which were fixed at integer multiplicity (Fig. 4b). Classification of point mutations based on their multiplicities may help distinguish tumor suppressors and on cogenes (Fig. 5d). Knowledge of discrete tumor copy-states, subclonal structure, and genome doubling status provides a foundation for further reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationships within a cancer and the temporal sequence by which a given cancer genome arose43, 44, 45.
