Abstract

While the heterogeneity of cancer is increasingly appreciated, it is also clear that recurrently deregulated pathways are shared between tumors across tissue types. To identify similarities in subsets of tumors from multiple epithelial organs, we performed transcriptome profile analysis of different epithelial tumors and cell lines (n=2928) from 17 different organs. We identified three to seven consensus gene expression subtypes in epithelial tumors and cell lines, irrespective of the organ-specific origin. These consensus subtypes showed biological significance. Moreover, we identified specific gene signatures that could be used to develop clinical assays for future application of this classification system. Overall, our study identifies consensus transcriptome subtypes across organ-specific tumors and highlights new avenues for precision therapy irrespective of the organ of origin.