Abstract 100: The landscape of somatic genetic alterations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancers
Authors: Macedo Gabriel S. , Burke Kathleen A. , Piscuoglio Salvatore , Ng Charlotte K. Y. , Geyer Felipe C. , Martelotto Luciano G. , Papanastatiou Anastasios D. , De Filippo Maria R. , Schultheis Anne M. , Brogi Edi , Robson Mark E. , Wen Hannah Y. , Weigelt Britta , Reis-Filho Jorge S. 
Published: July 2016

Background: BRCA1 or BRCA2 germline mutations account for a substantial proportion of hereditary breast cancers. The majority of BRCA1-associated breast cancers are of triple-negative phenotype (estrogen receptor (ER)-, progesterone receptor (PR)- and HER2-negative) and harbor TP53 somatic mutations. BRCA2-associated cancers are less homogeneous and often ER-positive. Systematic analyses of the profiles of somatic genetic alterations in BRCA1- and BRCA2-breast cancers have yet to be reported. Here we sought to determine the repertoire of somatic mutations and copy number alterations (CNAs) in breast cancers occurring in patients with BRCA1 or BRCA2 germline mutations..

Methods: Eleven BRCA1- and five BRCA2-associated breast cancers were microdissected. DNA was extracted from microdissected frozen tumor-normal pairs and subjected to targeted capture massively parallel sequencing using the MSK-IMPACT platform, which includes all exons and selected introns and regulatory regions of 410 key cancer genes. Somatic single nucleotide variants, small insertions and deletions, CNAs and the cancer cell fraction (CCF) of each alteration were defined using state-of-the-art bioinformatics algorithms.

Results: 82% (9/11) and 18% (2/11) of BRCA1-breast cancers were triple-negative and ER-positive/HER2-negative, respectively. All BRCA2-cancers were ER-positive, of which one was HER2-positive. Sequencing analysis revealed a median of four (2-11) and two (0-6) non-synonymous somatic mutations in BRCA1- and BRCA2-breast cancers, respectively. Within BRCA1-breast cancers all but one (10/11, 91%) harbored TP53 clonal somatic mutations, and clonal somatic loss of the BRCA1 wild-type allele was found in 8 of these cases. The BRCA1-breast cancer lacking these alterations was ER-positive and the only case harboring a PIK3CA mutation. Additional clonal mutations identified in BRCA1-breast cancers included somatic mutations affecting EGFR and RB1. Subclonal mutations in known cancer genes (e.g. GATA3 and PTEN) were also identified, suggesting intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity. All BRCA2-breast cancers analyzed displayed clonal loss of the wild-type of BRCA2, but no gene was found to be recurrently mutated.

Conclusions: BRCA1- and BRCA2-breast cancers are both characterized by clonal inactivation of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 wild-type alleles, respectively, which likely constitute early genetic events. Within BRCA1-breast cancers, TP53 mutations are highly recurrent and clonal, and may precede somatic loss of the BRCA1 wild-type allele, as the latter was subclonal in one case harboring a clonal TP53 somatic mutation.

Citation Format: Gabriel S. Macedo, Kathleen A. Burke, Salvatore Piscuoglio, Charlotte K. Y. Ng, Felipe C. Geyer, Luciano G. Martelotto, Anastasios D. Papanastatiou, Maria R. De Filippo, Anne M. Schultheis, Edi Brogi, Mark E. Robson, Hannah Y. Wen, Britta Weigelt, Jorge S. Reis-Filho. The landscape of somatic genetic alterations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 100.