Correlation between depression/anxiety and somatic circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) alterations in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).
649 Background: A correlation between depression/anxiety and survival has been established in patients (pts) with mRCC (Cohen et al PLoS One 2012). We hypothesize that frequently encountered genomic alterations (GAs) in mRCC may identify pts with these psychological disorders. Methods: Data was obtained from pts with mRCC who received ctDNA profiling as a part of routine clinical care at progression using a CLIAA-certified platform evaluating 73 genes. Genomic alterations (GAs) were pooled for the entire cohort. ICD-9 diagnoses corresponding to anxiety and depression (300 and 311, respectively) were derived from detailed chart review, including review of established diagnoses and medication history. The chi-square test was used to determine the association between frequent GAs (those occurring in ≥5% of the study population) and the presence of depression and anxiety. Results: ctDNA results from 52 pts with mRCC were assessed (gender: 69.2% M, 30.8% F; average age: 58; histology: 84.6% clear cell, 15.4% non-clear cell). The most commonly used 1st-line treatment was sunitinib (46.1%). GAs were detected in 55.8% of pts. The most frequent GAs in the overall cohort included TP53 (21.1%), VHL (17.3%) and EGFR (7.7%). 5 and 8 pts were coded as having depression and anxiety, respectively. The average number (range) of ctDNA alterations detected was 1.1 (0-4) in patients with depression/anxiety and 1.6 (0-10) in those without (P = 0.001). The presence of VHL mutation was found to occur exclusively in pts with no depression/anxiety (P = 0.05), while 13 patients (25%) lacking VHL GAs had these psychological disorders. Conclusions: The absence of VHL alterations have been associated with poorer survival in pts with RCC (Patard et al Int J Cancer 2008), and our findings suggest that these patients may further have higher rates of depression/anxiety. Our data imply that patients bearing mutations in VHL may a prime target for early psychosocial interventions.