Revealing cancer driver genes through integrative transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses with Moonlight

Cancer involves dynamic changes caused by (epi)genetic alterations such as mutations or abnormal DNA methylation patterns which occur in cancer driver genes. These driver genes are divided into oncogenes and tumor suppressors depending on their function and mechanism of action. Discovering driver genes in different cancer (sub)types is important not only for increasing current understanding of carcinogenesis but also from prognostic and therapeutic perspectives. We have previously developed a framework called Moonlight which uses a systems biology multi-omics approach for prediction of driver genes. Here, we present an important development in Moonlight2 by incorporating a DNA methylation layer which provides epigenetic evidence for deregulated expression profiles of driver genes. To this end, we present a novel functionality called Gene Methylation Analysis (GMA) which investigates abnormal DNA methylation patterns to predict driver genes. This is achieved by integrating the tool EpiMix which is designed to detect such aberrant DNA methylation patterns in a cohort of patients and further couples these patterns with gene expression changes. To showcase GMA, we applied it to three cancer (sub)types (basal-like breast cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, and thyroid carcinoma) where we discovered 33, 190, and 263 epigenetically driven genes, respectively. A subset of these driver genes had prognostic effects with expression levels significantly affecting survival of the patients. Moreover, a subset of the driver genes demonstrated therapeutic potential as drug targets. This study provides a framework for exploring the driving forces behind cancer and provides novel insights into the landscape of three cancer sub(types) by integrating gene expression and methylation data.