Integrating molecular profiling into cancer treatment decision making: Experience with over 35,000 cases.

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 11001-11001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoran Gatalica ◽  
Sherri Millis ◽  
Sting Chen ◽  
Gargi Dan Basu ◽  
Wenhsiang Wen ◽  
...  

11001 Background: Molecular profiling of both common and rare cancer types provides for the identification of actionable targets for chemotherapy with many unexpected associations. Methods: Caris Life Sciences database of >35,000 profiled cancers was reviewed for well-established driver gene mutations and copy number alterations, and protein expression patterns that are relevant for selection of targeted therapy. Based on the published literature, these tumor characteristics were then associated with potential benefit or no benefit to the specific therapeutic agents. All relevant published studies were evaluated using the USPSTF grading scheme for study design and validity. Assay methodologies included sequencing (Sanger, pyrosequencing), PCR, FISH, CISH, and immunohistochemistry. Results: All common malignancies (10 most common cancer types in men and women) and 10 rare cancer types were well represented (minimum of 100 cases in each individual cancer type). Well established driver mutations and protein expression in common cancers were all identified with expected frequencies (e.g. HER2 amplification in breast, PIK3CA mutations in ER+ breast cancer, EGFR mutations in NSCLC, etc.). Importantly, unexpected new and potentially actionable targets were identified in common (e.g., 6.7% HER2 amplification in NSCLC, 1.6% KRAS mutation in prostatic adenocarcinoma) and rare cancers (e.g., 8.3% ALK alteration in soft tissue sarcomas, 10.5% c-MET and 26.4% EGFR gene amplification in melanomas, 16.3% KRAS mutation in cholangiocarcinomas, 10% AR expression in STS), as well in cancers of unknown primary site (approximately 4% of all tested cases). Conclusions: This review of the large referral cancer profiling database provided an unparalleled insight in the distribution of common and rare genetic and protein alterations with direct and potential treatment implications. Numerous targets were discovered that had a potential to be treated by the conventional chemotherapy as well as targeted therapy not usually considered for the cancer type. Comparison between an individual patient tumor profile and database for the matched cancer type provides additional level of support for targeted treatment choices.

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 512
Author(s):  
Celine Jacobs ◽  
Lore Lapeire

Soft tissue sarcomas are a group of rare mesenchymal tumors with more than 70 subtypes described. Treatment of these subtypes in an advanced setting is mainly according to a one-size-fits-all strategy indicating a high unmet need of new and more targeted therapeutic options in order to optimize survival. The introduction of advanced molecular techniques in cancer has led to better diagnostics and identification of new therapeutic targets, leading to more personalized treatment and improved prognosis for several cancer types. In sarcoma, a likewise evolution is seen, albeit at a slower pace. This manuscript describes how in the past years advanced molecular profiling in soft tissue sarcomas was able to identify specific and often pathognomonic aberrations, deferring standard sarcoma treatment in favor of more targeted treatment from an oncologist’s point of view.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 4529-4529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim S. Koshkin ◽  
Jordan Reynolds ◽  
Paul Elson ◽  
Cristina Magi-Galluzzi ◽  
Jesse McKenney ◽  
...  

4529 Background: SCBC is rare and its underlying biology poorly understood. Molecular profiling can shed light on the biology and identify treatment targets and biomarkers. Methods: A retrospective review of 63 patients (pts) with biopsy-confirmed SCBC at Cleveland Clinic (1994-2015) was performed. Percentage of small cell component (SC%) was defined by independent pathology review. DLL3 and PD-L1 protein expression were measured by IHC in 53 pts. Gene expression analysis was done in 38 primary SCBC tumor samples, 1 metastatic sample, and 5 normal bladder tissue samples (44 total) from the same cohort using HTG EdgeSeq OBP Assay with probes for 2568 genes. Analysis was performed via the RNAseq workflow (Partek Genomics Suite). Results: Among 63 identified pts, median age was 71 (39-90), 83% were men, median SC% was 100% (range 5-100%), median follow-up was 16.6 months and estimated median overall survival (OS) was 22.8 months. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of gene expression patterns from 44 samples produced 4 distinct clusters. Pts with tumors in cluster 1 (that also included normal samples) did not have metastasis at diagnosis or distant recurrence, both of which were over-represented in the other 3 clusters. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a trend towards longer OS in cluster 1 patients (log rank p = 0.065). Higher gene expression of PRC1, NCAM1 (CD56) and DLL3 correlated with higher SC%, as did lower gene expression of ERBB2, PD-L1 and HPGD (p < 0.01). PD-L1 protein expression (≥1% cells) was noted in 30% of pts but did not correlate with outcome, SC%, DLL3 protein expression, or PD-L1 gene expression. DLL3 protein expression (≥1% cells) was noted in 68% of pts and DLL3 > 10% correlated with decreased OS (p = .03). Higher DLL3 protein expression correlated with DLL3 gene expression (Spearman r = 0.70, p < .01) and with SC% (r = .33, p = .01). Conclusions: This is the first study to reveal distinct gene expression patterns that define aggressive behavior, metastatic potential and outcomes in SCBC. The prognostic value of differential gene expression networks and the presence of underlying genomic and epigenetic alterations is the subject of ongoing prospective validation in a larger cohort.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oguzhan Begik ◽  
Morghan C. Lucas ◽  
Huanle Liu ◽  
Jose Miguel Ramirez ◽  
John S. Mattick ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackgroundRNA modifications play central roles in cellular fate and differentiation. These features have placed the epitranscriptome in the forefront of developmental biology and cancer research. However, the machinery responsible for placing, removing and recognizing more than 170 RNA modifications remains largely uncharacterized and poorly annotated, and we currently lack integrative studies that identify which RNA modification–related proteins (RMPs) may be dysregulated in each cancer type.ResultsHere we have performed a comprehensive annotation and evolutionary analysis of human RMPs as well as an integrative analysis of their expression patterns across 32 tissues, 10 species and 13,358 paired tumor-normal human samples. Our analysis reveals an unanticipated heterogeneity of RMP expression patterns across mammalian tissues, with a vast proportion of duplicated enzymes displaying testis-specific expression, suggesting a key role for RNA modifications in sperm formation and possibly intergenerational inheritance. Moreover, through the analysis of paired tumor-normal human samples we uncover many RMPs that are dysregulated in various types of cancer, and whose expression levels are predictive of cancer progression. Surprisingly, we find that several commonly studied RNA modification enzymes such as METTL3 or FTO, are not significantly up-regulated in most cancer types, once the sample is properly scaled and normalized to the full dataset, whereas several less-characterized RMPs, such as LAGE3 and HENMT1, are dysregulated in many cancers.ConclusionsOur analyses reveal an unanticipated heterogeneity in the expression patterns of RMPs across mammalian tissues, and uncover a large proportion of dysregulated RMPs in multiple cancer types. We provide novel targets for future cancer research studies targeting the human epitranscriptome, as well as foundations to understand cell type-specific behaviours that are orchestrated by RNA modifications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 3632-3632
Author(s):  
Akram Mesleh Shayeb ◽  
Razelle Kurzrock ◽  
Shumei Kato

3632 Background: HER2 alterations is a predictive biomarker for anti-HER2 regimen. Success in breast and gastric cancers with anti-HER2 therapies translated to explore their efficacy in other tumors. Currently, measurement of HER2 can be done by assessing the expression of protein [e.g. immunohistochemistry (IHC)] or gene amplification of copy number variation (CNV) [e.g. fluorescence in situ hybridization or next-generation sequencing (NGS)]. But little is known about the transcription level (mRNA) of HER2. Herein, we investigated HER2 mRNA expression and its association with gene and protein expressions among diverse cancer types. Methods: Between 2015-2019, HER2 status was evaluated using IHC, qRT-PCR and NGS by Paradigm Diagnostics (CLIA-certified laboratory). All tumors in the database were included for analysis. Correlations between all 3 tests were done. An illustrative patient who was treated with anti-HER2 therapy base on the mRNA testing is presented. Results: HER2 testing was performed on 5305 patients (pts) with diverse cancers including NSCLC (n=1175), breast (n=1040) and colon (n=566); 4.1% (161/3926) had amplification through NGS, 33.3% (615/1848) had mRNA overexpression and 9.3% (236/2533) had overexpression by IHC. Of 723 pts who had all three tests performed, we found 7.5% (54/723) of pts with all three HER2 markers being positive (CNV [+]/mRNA [+]/ IHC [+]). Meanwhile, variety of amplification/ expression patterns were seen (see Table). CNV positivity translated to protein expression in 95% of cases. While only 4% of pts were IHC positive when CNV and mRNA were negative. 20% (144/723) of pts had mRNA overexpression alone among diverse cancer types. Representative case of 70yo female with metastatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring mRNA overexpression (but negative for CNV, IHC unclear due to sample insufficiency) who had near complete response to anti-HER2 therapy with progression-free survival of 24+ months is presented. Conclusions: HER2 status can be discordant with different assays but NGS positivity has excellent correlation with mRNA and protein expression. Of importance, HER2 mRNA can be overexpressed in 20% of pts even when gene amplification and protein expression are negative. Further studies are warranted to determine the clinical utility of mRNA as a biomarker for HER2 and potential use for anti-HER2 targeted therapies. [Table: see text]


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Nulsen ◽  
Hrvoje Misetic ◽  
Christopher Yau ◽  
Francesca D. Ciccarelli

Abstract Background Identifying the complete repertoire of genes that drive cancer in individual patients is crucial for precision oncology. Most established methods identify driver genes that are recurrently altered across patient cohorts. However, mapping these genes back to patients leaves a sizeable fraction with few or no drivers, hindering our understanding of cancer mechanisms and limiting the choice of therapeutic interventions. Results We present sysSVM2, a machine learning software that integrates cancer genetic alterations with gene systems-level properties to predict drivers in individual patients. Using simulated pan-cancer data, we optimise sysSVM2 for application to any cancer type. We benchmark its performance on real cancer data and validate its applicability to a rare cancer type with few known driver genes. We show that drivers predicted by sysSVM2 have a low false-positive rate, are stable and disrupt well-known cancer-related pathways. Conclusions sysSVM2 can be used to identify driver alterations in patients lacking sufficient canonical drivers or belonging to rare cancer types for which assembling a large enough cohort is challenging, furthering the goals of precision oncology. As resources for the community, we provide the code to implement sysSVM2 and the pre-trained models in all TCGA cancer types (https://github.com/ciccalab/sysSVM2).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ertugrul Dalgic

Switch-like behavior of tumorigenesis could be governed by antagonistic gene and protein pairs with mutual inhibition. Unlike extensive analysis of gene expression, search for protein level antagonistic pairs has been limited. Here, potential cancer type specific antagonist protein pairs with mutual inhibition were obtained from large scale datasets. Cancer samples or cancer types were compared to retrieve potential protein pairs with contrasting differential expression patterns. Analysis of two different protein expression datasets showed that a few proteins participate in most of the mutually antagonistic relationships. Some proteins with highly antagonistic profile were identified, which could not be attained from a differential expression or a correlation based analysis. The antagonistic protein pairs are sparsely connected by molecular interactions. Glioma, melanoma, and cervical cancer, are more frequently associated with antagonistic proteins than most of the other cancer types. Integrative analysis of mutually antagonist protein pairs contributes to our understanding of systems level changes of cancer.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1106
Author(s):  
Claudia Paterson ◽  
Ethan J. Kilmister ◽  
Helen D. Brasch ◽  
Nicholas Bockett ◽  
Josie Patel ◽  
...  

The stemness-associated markers OCT4, NANOG, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC are expressed in numerous cancer types suggesting the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining performed on 12 lung adenocarcinoma (LA) tissue samples showed protein expression of OCT4, NANOG, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC, and the CSC marker CD44. In situ hybridization (ISH) performed on six of the LA tissue samples showed mRNA expression of OCT4, NANOG, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC. Immunofluorescence staining performed on three of the tissue samples showed co-expression of OCT4 and c-MYC with NANOG, SOX2 and KLF4 by tumor gland cells, and expression of OCT4 and c-MYC exclusively by cells within the stroma. RT-qPCR performed on five LA-derived primary cell lines showed mRNA expression of all the markers except SOX2. Western blotting performed on four LA-derived primary cell lines demonstrated protein expression of all the markers except SOX2 and NANOG. Initial tumorsphere assays performed on four LA-derived primary cell lines demonstrated 0–80% of tumorspheres surpassing the 50 µm threshold. The expression of the stemness-associated markers OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, KFL4 and c-MYC by LA at the mRNA and protein level, and the unique expression patterns suggest a putative presence of CSC subpopulations within LA, which may be a novel therapeutic target for this cancer. Further functional studies are required to investigate the possession of stemness traits.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Jiamin Zhu ◽  
Zhili Liu ◽  
Xiao Liang ◽  
Lu Wang ◽  
Dan Wu ◽  
...  

Objective. Exome sequencing studies have shown that the histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2 (KMT2) gene is one of the most commonly mutated genes in a range of human malignancies and is linked to some of the most common and deadly solid tumors. However, the connection between this gene family’s function and tumor type, immunological subtype, and molecular subtype dependency is still unknown. Methods. We examine the expression patterns of the histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2 (KMT2) gene, as well as their relationship to patient survival. We also used a pan-cancer analysis to link their function to immunological subtypes, the tumor microenvironment, and treatment sensitivity. Results. Using the TCGA pan-cancer data, researchers looked at and examined KMT2 expression patterns and their links to patient survival and the tumor microenvironment in 33 cancer types. The expression of the KMT2 family changes significantly across and within cancer types, indicating significant inter- and intracancer heterogeneity. Patients’ overall survival was often linked to the expression of KMT2 family members. However, the direction of the link differed depending on the KMT2 isoform and cancer type studied. Notably, in all cancer types examined, nearly all KMT2 family members were substantially linked with overall survival in patients with renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). Furthermore, all KMT2 genes have a strong relationship with immune infiltrate subtypes, as well as varying degrees of stromal cell infiltration and tumor cell stemness. Finally, we discovered that higher expression of KMT2s, particularly KMT2F and KMT2G, was linked to greater chemotherapeutic sensitivity in several cell lines. Conclusions. The necessity to investigate each KMT2 member as a distinct entity inside each particular cancer type is highlighted by our comprehensive investigation of KMT2 gene expression and its relationship with immune infiltrates, tumor microenvironment, and cancer patient outcomes. Our research also confirmed the identification of KMT2 as a potential therapeutic target in cancer, but further laboratory testing is required.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Nulsen ◽  
Hrvoje Misetic ◽  
Christopher Yau ◽  
Francesca D. Ciccarelli

ABSTRACTBackgroundIdentifying the complete repertoire of genes that drive cancer in individual patients is crucial for precision oncology. Most established methods identify driver genes that are recurrently altered across patient cohorts. However, mapping these genes back to patients leaves a sizeable fraction with few or no drivers, hindering our understanding of cancer mechanisms and limiting the choice of therapeutic interventions.ResultsWe present sysSVM2, a machine learning software that integrates cancer genetic alterations with gene systems-level properties to predict drivers in individual patients. Using simulated pan-cancer data, we optimise sysSVM2 for application to any cancer type. We benchmark its performance on real cancer data and validate its applicability to a rare cancer type with few known driver genes. We show that drivers predicted by sysSVM2 have a low false-positive rate, are stable and disrupt well-known cancer-related pathways.ConclusionssysSVM2 can be used to identify driver alterations in patients lacking sufficient canonical drivers or belonging to rare cancer types for which assembling a large enough cohort is challenging, furthering the goals of precision oncology. As resources for the community, we provide the code to implement sysSVM2 and the pre-trained models in all TCGA cancer types (https://github.com/ciccalab/sysSVM2).


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2776
Author(s):  
Moom R. Roosan ◽  
Isa Mambetsariev ◽  
Rebecca Pharaon ◽  
Jeremy Fricke ◽  
Angel R. Baroz ◽  
...  

Metastasis continues to be the primary cause of all cancer-related deaths despite the recent advancements in cancer treatments. To evaluate the role of mutations in overall survival (OS) and treatment outcomes, we analyzed 957 metastatic patients with seven major cancer types who had available molecular testing results with a FoundationOne CDx® panel. The most prevalent genes with somatic mutations were TP53, KRAS, APC, and LRP1B. In this analysis, these genes had mutation frequencies higher than in publicly available datasets. We identified that the somatic mutations were seven mutually exclusive gene pairs and an additional fifty-two co-occurring gene pairs. Mutations in the mutually exclusive gene pair APC and CDKN2A showed an opposite effect on the overall survival. However, patients with CDKN2A mutations showed significantly shorter OS (HR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.34–2.21, p < 0.001) after adjusting for cancer type, age at diagnosis, and sex. Five-year post metastatic diagnosis survival analysis showed a significant improvement in OS (median survival 28 and 43 months in pre-2015 and post-2015 metastatic diagnosis, respectively, p = 0.00021) based on the year of metastatic diagnosis. Although the use of targeted therapies after metastatic diagnosis prolonged OS, the benefit was not statistically significant. However, longer five-year progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly associated with targeted therapy use (median 10.9 months (CI: 9.7–11.9 months) compared to 9.1 months (CI: 8.1–10.1 months) for non-targeted therapy, respectively, p = 0.0029). Our results provide a clinically relevant overview of the complex molecular landscape and survival mechanisms in metastatic solid cancers.


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