Abstract 5747: Chemotherapy-related mutational signatures reveal the origins of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms
Authors: Diamond Benjamin , Ziccheddu Bachisio , Boyle Eileen M. , Maclachlan Kylee , Taylor Justin , Watts Justin M. , Lu Sydney X. , Coffey David G. , Bolli Niccolo , Papaemmanuil Elli , Bolton Kelly , Park Jae H. , Landau Heather , Ganesh Karuna , Sekeres Mikkael A. , Nimer Stephen , Chung David J. , Ho Caleb H. , Roshal Mikhail , Lesokhin Alexander , Morgan Gareth , Landgren Ola , Maura Francesco 
Published: June 2022

Patients treated with chemotherapy (CT) and/or autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) are at risk for therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (tMN). Certain cytotoxic agents introduce mutations within distinct trinucleotide contexts resulting in a unique barcode for each exposed cell. We leveraged mutational signatures to investigate the role of CT in the genomic landscape of tMN with respect to antecedent clonal hematopoiesis (CH).

We analyzed 32 tMN and 2 tALL from 33 patients and interrogated for copy number abnormalities (CNA), structural variants (SV), single nucleotide variants (SNV), and mutational signatures. For 7 patients with tMN post-melphalan/ASCT, we investigated antecedent CH using targeted sequencing on pre-melphalan samples, including autograft products.

CH variants that became clonal in tumor were seen in 5/7 pre-melphalan/ASCT samples (TP53, RUNX1, NCOR1, NF1, CREBBP, DNMT3A, and PPM1D). Complex SV were seen in 7 tMNs; including chromothripsis in 6 (19.4%). In 4 cases, chromothripsis involved chromosome 19 with hyper-amplification of the SMARCA4 locus (≥5 copies). Mutational signature analysis revealed 6 known single base substitution (SBS) signatures in tMN including melphalan (SBS-MM1) and platinum signatures (SBS31, SBS35, and E-SBS37). TMNs with CT signatures had higher mutation burden than those without (p = 0.004). 17 patients with exposure to agents other than melphalan/platinum did not have increased mutational burden with respect to de novo AML (TCGA; NEJM, 2013).

All patients with prior platinum exposure (including tALL, n=9) had platinum SBS signatures while only 2 of 7 patients with prior melphalan/ASCT had a melphalan signature (SBS-MM1). Detection of CT signatures in bulk sequencing relies on one cell, with its barcode of mutations, to expand to clonal dominance. Given pre-existent CH, including in 3/3 autograft products, absence of a CT signature despite melphalan exposure implies progression by a clone that escaped CT exposure with stem-cell collection and reinfusion. Conversely, all platinum-exposed tAML had signature evidence of exposure confirming existence of CH prior to exposure and supporting post-CT single-cell expansion. TMNs from 3 patients exposed to sequential platinum and melphalan/ASCT had platinum but not melphalan signatures confirming single-cell expansion of the pre-tMN CH clone post-platinum but with escape from exposure to melphalan via leukapheresis. Chromothripsis events bore only non-duplicated CT-induced mutations, indicative of acquisition prior to, and not directly caused by, CT exposure.

These disparities suggest that ASCT provides a mechanism for CH clones to escape CT and re-engraft with transplant. Coupled with driver events accrued prior to CT, this suggest that CT-induced mutagenesis may be less important than other factors, such as CT-induced immunosuppression, in the expansion of pre-TMN CH clones.

Citation Format: Benjamin Diamond, Bachisio Ziccheddu, Eileen M. Boyle, Kylee Maclachlan, Justin Taylor, Justin M. Watts, Sydney X. Lu, David G. Coffey, Niccolo Bolli, Elli Papaemmanuil, Kelly Bolton, Jae H. Park, Heather Landau, Karuna Ganesh, Mikkael A. Sekeres, Stephen Nimer, David J. Chung, Caleb H. Ho, Mikhail Roshal, Alexander Lesokhin, Gareth Morgan, Ola Landgren, Francesco Maura. Chemotherapy-related mutational signatures reveal the origins of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 5747.