We found a range of G0 arrest aetiologies across most tissues, while a minority of cancers were dominated by a single form of stress response, e.g. serum starvation in all G0 arrested pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas, contact inhibition in 88% of head and neck carcinomas and CDK4/6 inhibition in 80% of adrenocortical carcinomas. Here, CDK4 is linked to paraganglioma.