Figure 2. Clustering of gingivo-buccal oral cancer patients based on mutational profiles.

Hierarchical clustering of 110 gingivo-buccal oral squamous cell carcinoma patients based on 10 significantly and frequently mutated genes form three broad clusters (C₁–C₃) with the following essential characteristics: (a) Patients with mutations in CASP8 with or without mutations in FAT1, (b) patients with mutations in TP53 and (c) patients with mutations in various other genes. Within each cluster, there are multiple subclusters. The duration (in months) of disease-free survival averaged over patients belonging to each subcluster is provided in the panel below. The mean duration of disease-free survival is long for three subclusters comprising patients with mutations in (i) CASP8, NOTCH1 and FAT1 (C_1.2), (ii) CASP8, NOTCH1 and ARID2 (C_1.4) and (iii) MLL4 with other genes (C_3.2). Filled boxes indicate DNA alterations; red and blue boxes indicate, respectively, nonsense/frame-shift/splice-site and missense/in-frame insertion-deletion.