Abstract 417: Urine as an alternative to blood for germline genomics and cancer genetics
Authors: Jain Surbhi , Lee Tai-Jung , Zhang Adam , Cheng Jonathan , Steffen Jamin D. , Hu Chi-Tan , Hamilton James P. , Luu Harry , Hann Hie-Won , Shieh Fwu-Shan , Lin Selena Y. , Song Wei , Su Ying-Hsiu 
Published: August 2019

Currently, blood is the body fluid of choice to provide comprehensive germline genomics via Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC) and cancer genetics via the detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA, liquid biopsy) for precision medicine. In this study, we examined if urine can be an alternative to blood for comprehensive germline genomics and for liquid biopsy. We have previously shown that human urine contains DNA derived both from sloughed-off cell debris of the urinary tract (greater than 1 KB/High Molecular weight or HMW) and trans-renal DNA from the circulation (less than 1 KB/Low molecular weight or LMW). We performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) to compare the quality and comprehensiveness of the genomic data between 3 sets of matched PBMC and HMW urine DNA. There was no statistically significant difference between the NGS data obtained from PBMC and urine DNA upon comparing the number of reads, average coverage, percent aligned reads, percent reads passing Phred score Q30 (p value less than 0.05, paired t-test) and coverage of human genome. Next, we compared the detectability of ctDNA in the matching LMW urine and plasma DNA obtained from 44 HCC patients by employing a panel of HCC biomarkers including genetic mutations at TP53 codon 249 [G:C to T:A transversion (TP53 249T)], CTNNB1 exon 3 regions 32-37 (CTNNB1 32-37), and hTERT promoter region position 124 (hTERT 124) and aberrant methylation of RASSF1A (mRASSF1A) promoter. In this study, a systematic analysis of this HCC biomarker panel demonstrated that urine can complement blood for liver cancer screening. A combination of the plasma and urine biomarkers with serum AFP the current most widely used biomarker for HCC can provide higher sensitivity (up to 30% more) for liver cancer detection. In order to characterize and determine if LMW urine DNA is derived from plasma DNA, we performed WGS to compare the size profiles and coverage of these two sources of cell-free DNA in 3 sets of matching HCC urine and plasma samples. Overall shorter read lengths were obtained from urine DNA as compared to the corresponding plasma DNA. A series of peaks occurring at 10 bp periodicity was displayed in both sources of cell-free DNA Further analysis regarding the genome coverage, overlapping fraction and variant detection is ongoing. In conclusion, our data suggests that (i) HMW urine DNA can replace PBMC DNA for providing comprehensive genomic sequencing data and (ii) urine can complement blood for liver cancer liquid biopsy, precision medicine, and potential applications to other cancers.

Citation Format: Surbhi Jain, Tai-Jung Lee, Adam Zhang, Jonathan Cheng, Jamin D. Steffen, Chi-Tan Hu, James P. Hamilton, Harry Luu, Hie-Won Hann, Fwu-Shan Shieh, Selena Y. Lin, Wei Song, Ying-Hsiu Su. Urine as an alternative to blood for germline genomics and cancer genetics [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 417.