It showed that signature 3 (associated with homologous recombination) was actually the most prevalent, whereas patterns related to NER (albeit not with CRC), such as signatures 4, 7, 11, 22 and 24, contributed only marginally, which did not support our hypothesis that the ERCC6 mutations were the drivers behind the early development of the tumour (Supplementary Table 8) (https://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/cosmic/signatures_v2.tt). This evidence concerns the gene ERCC6 and colorectal carcinoma.