Clinical and molecular correlates of tumor aneuploidy in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Recent studies have linked elevated tumor aneuploidy to anti-tumor immune suppression and adverse survival following immunotherapy. Herein, we provide supportive evidence for tumor aneuploidy as a biomarker of response to immunotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We identify a dose-response relationship between aneuploidy score and patient outcomes.

Clinicogenomic characterization of inflammatory breast cancer.

Background: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare and poorly characterized type of breast cancer with an aggressive clinical presentation. The biological mechanisms driving the IBC phenotype are relatively undefined-partially due to a lack of comprehensive, large-scale genomic studies and limited clinical cohorts.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective analysis of 2457 patients with metastatic breast cancer who underwent targeted tumor-only DNA-sequencing was performed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Impact of Aneuploidy and Chromosome 9p Loss on Tumor Immune Microenvironment and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Efficacy in NSCLC.

Introduction: Although gene-level copy number alterations have been studied as a potential biomarker of immunotherapy efficacy in NSCLC, the impact of aneuploidy burden and chromosomal arm-level events on immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) efficacy in NSCLC is uncertain.

Methods: Patients who received programmed cell death protein 1 or programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor at two academic centers were included. Across all 22 chromosomes analyzed, an arm was considered altered if at least 70% of its territory was either gained or deleted.

Clinical Targeted Next-Generation Panel Sequencing Reveals Amplification Is a Poor Prognostic Factor in Osteosarcoma.

Purpose: Osteosarcoma risk stratification, on the basis of the presence of metastatic disease at diagnosis and histologic response to chemotherapy, has remained unchanged for four decades, does not include genomic features, and has not facilitated treatment advances. We report on the genomic features of advanced osteosarcoma and provide evidence that genomic alterations can be used for risk stratification.

Materials And Methods: In a primary analytic patient cohort, 113 tumor and 69 normal samples from 92 patients with high-grade osteosarcoma were sequenced with OncoPanel, a targeted next-generation sequencing assay.

PI3K Pathway Alterations in Peritoneal Metastases are Associated with Earlier Recurrence in Patients with Colorectal Cancer Undergoing Optimal Cytoreductive Surgery.

Background: Colorectal cancer with peritoneal metastasis (CRC-PM) represents a biologically heterogeneous disease; yet little is known regarding the impact of tumor biology on survival outcomes following optimal cytoreductive surgery (CRS). We analyzed the frequency of alterations in cancer signaling pathways in patients with CRC-PM and their impact on recurrence-free survival (RFS) following optimal CRS.

Methods: Thirty-five consecutive CRC-PM patients who underwent optimal CRS/HIPEC and next generation sequencing of peritoneal metastases were included in the study.

Inactivation Predicts Rapid Recurrence in Inoperable Early-Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Purpose: Molecular factors predicting relapse in early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (ES-NSCLC) are poorly understood, especially in inoperable patients receiving radiotherapy (RT). In this study, we compared the genomic profiles of inoperable and operable ES-NSCLC.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study included 53 patients with nonsquamous ES-NSCLC (stage I-II) treated at a single institution (University of Chicago) with surgery (ie, operable; n = 30) or RT (ie, inoperable; n = 23) who underwent tumor genomic profiling.

Tumor aneuploidy predicts survival following immunotherapy across multiple cancers.

Tumor mutational burden (TMB) has emerged as a promising biomarker of immunotherapy response across multiple cancer types; however, clinical outcomes among patients with low TMB tumors are heterogeneous. Herein, we demonstrate that tumor aneuploidy provides independent prognostic value among patients with lower TMB (<80th percentile) tumors treated with immunotherapy. A higher aneuploidy score is associated with poor prognosis following immunotherapy among tumors with low TMB, but not those with high TMB.

A proliferative subtype of colorectal liver metastases exhibits hypersensitivity to cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Personalized treatment approaches for patients with limited liver metastases from colorectal cancer are critically needed. By leveraging three large, independent cohorts of patients with colorectal liver metastases (n = 336), we found that a proliferative subtype associated with elevated CIN70 scores is linked to immune exclusion, increased metastatic proclivity, and inferior overall survival in colorectal liver metastases; however, high CIN70 scores generate a therapeutic vulnerability to DNA-damaging therapies leading to improved treatment responses. We propose CIN70 as a candidate biomarker to personalize systemic treatment options for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Microenvironment drives cell state, plasticity, and drug response in pancreatic cancer.

Prognostically relevant RNA expression states exist in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), but our understanding of their drivers, stability, and relationship to therapeutic response is limited. To examine these attributes systematically, we profiled metastatic biopsies and matched organoid models at single-cell resolution. In vivo, we identify a new intermediate PDAC transcriptional cell state and uncover distinct site- and state-specific tumor microenvironments (TMEs).

Diminished Efficacy of Programmed Death-(Ligand)1 Inhibition in STK11- and KEAP1-Mutant Lung Adenocarcinoma Is Affected by KRAS Mutation Status.

Introduction: STK11 and KEAP1 mutations (STK11 mutant [STK11] and KEAP1) are among the most often mutated genes in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Although STK11 has been associated with resistance to programmed death-(ligand)1 (PD-[L]1) inhibition in KRAS LUAD, its impact on immunotherapy efficacy in KRAS wild-type (KRAS) LUAD is currently unknown. Whether KEAP1 differentially affects outcomes to PD-(L)1 inhibition in KRAS and KRAS LUAD is also unknown.

CDKN2A loss-of-function predicts immunotherapy resistance in non-small cell lung cancer.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) improves outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) though most patients progress. There are limited data regarding molecular predictors of progression. In particular, there is controversy regarding the role of CDKN2A loss-of-function (LOF) in ICB resistance.

Discovery and Features of an Alkylating Signature in Colorectal Cancer.

Several risk factors have been established for colorectal cancer, yet their direct mutagenic effects in patients' tumors remain to be elucidated. Here, we leveraged whole-exome sequencing data from 900 colorectal cancer cases that had occurred in three U.S.

Extracellular Domain In-Frame Deletions Are Therapeutically Targetable Genomic Alterations That Function as Oncogenic Drivers in Cholangiocarcinoma.

We conducted next-generation DNA sequencing on 335 biliary tract cancers and characterized the genomic landscape by anatomic site within the biliary tree. In addition to frequent fusions among patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC), we identified extracellular domain in-frame deletions (EID) in 5 of 178 (2.8%) patients with IHCC, including two patients with p.

SMARCA4 and Other SWItch/Sucrose NonFermentable Family Genomic Alterations in NSCLC: Clinicopathologic Characteristics and Outcomes to Immune Checkpoint Inhibition.

Introduction: The SWItch/Sucrose Nonfermentable (SWI/SNF) chromatin remodeling complex acts as a regulatory component of transcription, and inactivating mutations (muts) within the complex are implicated in genomic instability, higher tumor mutational burden, and an aggressive cancer phenotype. Whether SMARCA4 and other SWI/SNF alterations are independent prognostic factors or associated with clinical outcomes to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in NSCLC remains unclear.

Methods: We collected clinicopathologic and genomic data from patients with NSCLC who underwent targeted next-generation sequencing at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

scReQTL: an approach to correlate SNVs to gene expression from individual scRNA-seq datasets.

Background: Recently, pioneering expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) studies on single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data have revealed new and cell-specific regulatory single nucleotide variants (SNVs). Here, we present an alternative QTL-related approach applicable to transcribed SNV loci from scRNA-seq data: scReQTL. ScReQTL uses Variant Allele Fraction (VAF) at expressed biallelic loci, and corelates it to gene expression from the corresponding cell.

Molecular Characterization and Therapeutic Targeting of Colorectal Cancers Harboring Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Fusions.

Purpose: Receptor tyrosine kinase fusions in colorectal cancers are rare, but potentially therapeutically relevant. We describe clinical, molecular, and pathologic attributes of RTK fusion-associated colorectal cancer.

Experimental Design: We identified all cases with RTK fusions in patients with colorectal cancer seen at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA) who underwent OncoPanel testing between 2013 and 2018.

Synthetic Lethal Interaction between the ESCRT Paralog Enzymes VPS4A and VPS4B in Cancers Harboring Loss of Chromosome 18q or 16q.

Few therapies target the loss of tumor suppressor genes in cancer. We examine CRISPR-SpCas9 and RNA-interference loss-of-function screens to identify new therapeutic targets associated with genomic loss of tumor suppressor genes. The endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) ATPases VPS4A and VPS4B score as strong synthetic lethal dependencies.

Genomic Characterization of Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Purpose: In contrast to recurrence after initial diagnosis of stage I-III breast cancer [recurrent metastatic breast cancer (rMBC)], metastatic breast cancer (dnMBC) represents a unique setting to elucidate metastatic drivers in the absence of treatment selection. We present the genomic landscape of dnMBC and association with overall survival (OS).

Experimental Design: Targeted DNA sequencing (OncoPanel) was prospectively performed on either primary or metastatic tumors from 926 patients (212 dnMBC and 714 rMBC).

Quantification of aneuploidy in targeted sequencing data using ASCETS.

Summary: The expansion of targeted panel sequencing efforts has created opportunities for large-scale genomic analysis, but tools for copy-number quantification on panel data are lacking. We introduce ASCETS, a method for the efficient quantitation of arm and chromosome-level copy-number changes from targeted sequencing data.

Availability And Implementation: ASCETS is implemented in R and is freely available to non-commercial users on GitHub: https://github.