We describe three key mathematical features of ABSOLUTE. First, it jointly estimates tumor purity and ploidy directly from observed relative copy profiles (point-mutations may also be used, if available). Second, because joint estimation may not be fully determined on a single sample, it uses a large and diverse sample collection to help resolve ambiguous cases. Third, the model attempts to account for subclonal copy alterations and point mutations, which are expected in heterogeneous cancer samples.
