Abstract 3692: Genomic profiling with the novel single-cell IMPACT assay reveals evidence of genetic heterogeneity among CTCs in late-stage breast cancer patients
Authors: Czyż Zbigniew T. , Chaiban Clara , Varadarajan Adithi Ravikumar , Köstler Cäcilia , Dechand Vadim , Grote Jonas , Ragg Thomas , Polzer Bernhard , Warfsmann Jens , Klein Christoph A. 
Published: March 2024

Introduction: Liquid biopsy enables minimally invasive molecular profiling of systemic cancer for diagnosis, therapy selection and longitudinal monitoring of minimal residual disease. Cell-based liquid biopsy methods are particularly well suited to examine the extent of genetic heterogeneity and clonal diversity among metastatic cancer cells, which are believed to be the major determinants of therapeutic failure. However, isolation and molecular profiling of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from body fluids is challenging due to methodological constrains.

Methods: To overcome these challenges, we have developed a workflow for detection, isolation, and mutational profiling of CTCs. The workflow utilizes the FDA-approved CellSearch System® and a novel method for single-cell Integrated Mutation Profiling of Actionable Cancer Targets (scIMPACT). Our workflow was optimized for reliable detection of copy number variations (CNVs) and single nucleotide variations (SNVs) in single CTCs. The method was then applied to 31 CTCs alongside with 15 matched germline samples.

Results: After implementation of a customized Bayesian neural network based algorithm, accounting for biases introduced during amplification of single-cell DNA and prioritizing the detected mutations, we achieved a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 96%, AUC = 0.98. The CTC analysis revealed presence of CNVs affecting known oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes (including MYC, CCND1, FGF4, TP53 and RB1) as well as SNVs classified as pathogenic (e.g., ARID1A Q775*). Notably, in the examined specimens most of the chromosomal aberrations (51-82%) were clonal across all cells of a given patient. In contrast, most of the detected somatic SNVs (67-96%) were sub-clonal and thus present only in a subset of CTCs.

Conclusion: In summary, the novel scIMPACT workflow enabled reliable and accurate genomic profiling of patient-derived CTCs in late-stage breast cancer patients. Our proof-of-concept study revealed evidence of genetic diversity of SNVs among the examined CTCs, which might have been acquired late in progression but relevant for therapy escape in the studied cases. Further analyses are still needed for assessing the generalizability of our finding as well as for deeper understanding of the molecular basis orchestrating the establishment and maintenance of heterogeneous genotypes of CTCs in breast cancer.

Citation Format: Zbigniew T. Czyż, Clara Chaiban, Adithi Ravikumar Varadarajan, Cäcilia Köstler, Vadim Dechand, Jonas Grote, Thomas Ragg, Bernhard Polzer, Jens Warfsmann, Christoph A. Klein. Genomic profiling with the novel single-cell IMPACT assay reveals evidence of genetic heterogeneity among CTCs in late-stage breast cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 3692.