Decomposition of mutational context signatures using quadratic programming methods

Methods: for inferring signatures of mutational contexts from large cancer sequencing data sets are invaluable for biological research, but impractical for clinical application where we require tools that decompose the context data for an individual into signatures. One such method has recently been published using an iterative linear modelling approach. A natural alternative places the problem within a quadratic programming framework and is presented here, where it is seen to offer advantages of speed and accuracy.