Abstract 94: Genomic landscape and clonal expansions of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma
Authors: Fujii Yoichi , Sato Yusuke , Maekawa Shigekatsu , Suzuki Hiromichi , Yoshizato Tetsuichi , Yoshida Kenichi , Shiraishi Yuichi , Chiba Kenichi , Tanaka Hiroko , Nakagawa Tohru , Kume Haruki , Nishimatsu Hiroaki , Hirano Yoshikazu , Sanada Masashi , Makishima Hideki , Miyano Satoru , Homma Yukio , Ogawa Seishi 
Published: July 2016

Backgrounds

Upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUTUC) is a relatively rare and poor prognostic cancer which accounts for 5-10% of all urothelial malignancies. Despite the histological similarity, there are epidemiological and clinical differences between UUTUC and bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC). Compared to BUC, the molecular pathogenesis of UUTUC is poorly understood. Urothelial carcinoma is also characterized by frequent multifocal lesions, suggesting field effects from mutagenic agents in urine and/or a dissemination from the primary tumor. To reveal the origin of the multifocality as well as the molecular pathogenesis of UUTUC, we performed comprehensive molecular analysis of UUTUC with regional multiple sampling.

Materials & methods

Surgical specimens of UUTUC and matched normal samples were obtained from 57 patients with various stages who underwent nephroureterectomy. Morphologically normal urothelial epithelia were also obtained in 5 cases, all of which were confirmed to be pathologically intact by an expert pathologist. Genomic DNA was extracted from each specimen and was subjected to whole exome sequencing using Hiseq 2500 for the detection of both somatic mutations and copy number lesions.

Results

In copy number analysis, recurrent deletions in 8p, 9p and 9q were identified, where homo deletions of 9p21.3 (CDKN2A) were most frequent (40.7%) Focal amplifications in 11q13.3 (CCND1) and 12q15 (MDM2) were also found. On average, 230 somatic nonsynonymous mutations per sample were detected. The mutation signature was biased to age-related and APOBEC patterns. Mutations were most frequently observed in KMT2D (42% of cases), followed by TP53 (32%), FGFR3 (24%), KDM6A (24%), EP300 (21%) and CREBBP (13%), which were also reported to be significantly mutated in BUC. However, the frequencies of these genetic lesions were substantially different between UUTUC and BUC. For example, abnormalities in RB1, CDKN1A and PIK3CA were not detected or rare in UUTUC but have been reported to be common targets of genetic lesions in BUC. In the analysis of normal epithelia, an average of 12.7 somatic mutations per sample were found but with low variant allele frequencies between 0.05−0.1. Somatic mutations in adjacent epithelia and preoperative urine were frequently shared by primary tumor, supporting a possibility of tumor disseminations from the original sites through urinary flow. In contrast, in other cases, distant epithelia harbored driver gene mutations that were not shared by the primary tumors, suggesting the presence of a mutagenic field effect on urothelial carcinogenesis.

Conclusions

Despite the similarity in their mutation spectrum, UUTUC and BUC seemed to have distinct pathogenesis in terms of the difference in mutation frequencies. Our data suggested that both dissemination and field effect might contribute to multifocal occurrence of UUTUC. These findings will provide a new insight into the pathophysiology of UUTUC.

Citation Format: Yoichi Fujii, Yusuke Sato, Shigekatsu Maekawa, Hiromichi Suzuki, Tetsuichi Yoshizato, Kenichi Yoshida, Yuichi Shiraishi, Kenichi Chiba, Hiroko Tanaka, Tohru Nakagawa, Haruki Kume, Hiroaki Nishimatsu, Yoshikazu Hirano, Masashi Sanada, Hideki Makishima, Satoru Miyano, Yukio Homma, Seishi Ogawa. Genomic landscape and clonal expansions of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma. [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 94.