Abstract 1456: Identifying early genetic steps in malignant transformation of neurofibromatosis type 1- associated plexiform neurofibromas
Authors: Pemov Alexander , Hansen Nancy F. , Patidar Rajesh , Higham Christine , Dombi Eva , Boland Joseph F. , Chandrasekharappa Settara C. ,   NIH Intramural Sequencing Center, Mullikin James C. , Wallace Margaret , Khan Javed , Legius Eric , Widemann Brigitte , Stewart Douglas R. 
Published: July 2017

BACKGROUND: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic tumor predisposition disorder caused by germline mutations in tumor suppressor NF1. Plexiform neurofibromas (PN) are benign tumors that arise prenatally or early in childhood and affect 30-50% of NF1 population. Somatic inactivation of second copy of NF1 is believed to be primary genetic event leading to PN initiation. NF1 patients have 8-12% lifetime risk of developing malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST), a highly aggressive soft tissue sarcoma, often arising from pre-existing PN and atypical NF (ANF). ANF are pre-malignant tumors that often arise within PN and can transform into MPNST. They are distinct from both PN and MPNST clinically and histologically, thus representing an intermediate step in malignant transformation. Several studies identified deletion of the CDKN2A/2B locus as the most frequent genetic event in ANF, however it is not clear whether other genes or pathways play role in PN transformation into ANF and further into MPNST. In this study, we performed genomic analysis of 16 ANF and 4 MPNST matched with normal DNA obtained from 14 and 4 patients, respectively.

METHODS: We performed whole exome sequencing and whole transcriptome RNASeq analyses on Illumina Hi-Seq 2500 platform and copy-number variant (CNV) analysis on Illumina HumanOmniExpressExome-8 SNP-arrays. In addition, we performed deep sequencing of NF1 and validation of select mutations on IonTorrent platform. For select tumors we estimated growth rate and metabolic activity by using volumetric MRI and FDG-PET.

RESULTS: We identified inactivation of NF1 in the majority of ANF and all MPNST. We also detected CDKN2A/B locus deletion in the majority of ANF and MPNST (heterozygous in ANF and mostly homozygous in MPNST). We determined that PRC2 genes (EED and SUZ12) were mutated in multiple MPNST but never in ANF. We identified a low number of point mutations and small indels in the genomes of ANF (median 1, range 0-4) and somewhat elevated mutation burden in MPNST (median 23, range 18-31), however none of these mutations were recurrent and none of the mutant genes (other than NF1 and CDKN2A) were present in multiple samples. We found 93 CNV per tumor (median) in ANF that constituted ~2% of their genomes. In comparison, we observed 2,249 CNV (median) in MPNST that comprised ~75% of their genomes. We didn’t detect significant correlation between growth rate or metabolic activity and the degree of genomic instability or mutation burden in the tumors, however the size of the sample set was modest. RNAseq data analysis is pending.

CONCLUSIONS: It appears that PN-ANF transition is predominantly if not exclusively driven by heterozygous deletion of the CDKN2A/2B locus. Further progression to MPNST likely involves homozygous loss of CDKN2A/B and complete inactivation of the PRC2 complex. Widespread LOH in MPNST may accelerate inactivation of key gatekeepers.

Citation Format: Alexander Pemov, Nancy F. Hansen, Rajesh Patidar, Christine Higham, Eva Dombi, Joseph F. Boland, Settara C. Chandrasekharappa, NIH Intramural Sequencing Center, James C. Mullikin, Margaret Wallace, Javed Khan, Eric Legius, Brigitte Widemann, Douglas R. Stewart. Identifying early genetic steps in malignant transformation of neurofibromatosis type 1- associated plexiform neurofibromas [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1456. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-1456