Abstract 1724: Genomic mechanisms of exquisite sensitivity and acquired resistance to everolimus in a patient with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma
Authors: Wagle Nikhil , Grabiner Brian C. , Allen Eliezer M. Van , Amin-Mansour Ali , Carter Scott C. , Gray Nathanael , Barletta Justine A. , Swanson Scott J. , Ruan Daniel , Kwiatkowski David J. , Hanna Glenn J. , Haddad Robert I. , Sabatini David , Janne Pasi A. , Garraway Levi A. , Lorch Jochen H. 
Published: May 2015

Understanding genetic mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance to targeted anticancer therapies may improve patient selection and rational treatment designs. One approach to increase this understanding involves the study of exceptional responders: rare patients with unexpected exquisite sensitivity or durable responses to therapy. We identified an exceptional responder on a study of the allosteric mTOR inhibitor everolimus in thyroid cancer: a 57-yr-old woman with refractory metastatic anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), a highly aggressive neoplasm with no adequate therapies and a median survival of 5 months. After beginning treatment with everolimus, the patient experienced a near complete response that lasted for 18 months, followed by progressive disease, which was then re-biopsied. To date, mechanisms of clinical resistance to mTOR inhibition have not been described.

We performed whole exome sequencing (WES) of both pre-treatment and drug resistant tumor tissue to look for the underlying mechanisms of exquisite sensitivity and acquired resistance to everolimus. WES of the pre-treatment tumor revealed a somatic nonsense mutation in TSC2, a tumor suppressor gene whose inactivation is known to activate the mTOR pathway and result in sensitivity to mTOR inhibition in some cancers. WES of the drug resistant tumor additionally revealed a mutation in mTOR (mTOR-F2108L) not detected in the pre-treatment tumor. Structural modeling demonstrated that this mutation occurs in the FKBP12-rapamycin binding domain of mTOR and is predicted to prevent binding of the drug to the protein. Overexpressing mTOR-F2108L in HEK-293T cells resulted in significant resistance to rapamycin compared to cells expressing wild type (wt) mTOR. In cells expressing the mutant mTOR, rapamycin did not decrease phosphorylation of S6K1, a downstream target of mTOR, compared with cells expressing wt mTOR. Notably, cells expressing mTOR-F2108L remained sensitive to the direct TOR inhibitor torin, suggesting a therapeutic approach to overcome resistance in this patient.

In summary, we add ATC to the growing list of cancers found to be exquisitely sensitive to everolimus when activating mTOR pathway mutations are present. Moreover, we present the first reported, to our knowledge, mechanism of acquired resistance to everolimus identified in patients. The fact that this occurs via a binding domain mutation that blocks allosteric mTOR inhibition suggests that followup therapy with direct TOR inhibitors may still have benefit in some patients who develop resistance to everolimus. The use of precision medicine approaches in ATC to screen for alterations in the mTOR pathway may help identify subsets of patients who would benefit from targeted therapies directed against mTOR. Moreover, the use of serial biopsies to profile patients who develop resistance to everolimus could dictate optimal followup treatment in ATC and other cancers.

Citation Format: Nikhil Wagle, Brian C. Grabiner, Eliezer M. Van Allen, Ali Amin-Mansour, Scott C. Carter, Nathanael Gray, Justine A. Barletta, Scott J. Swanson, Daniel Ruan, David J. Kwiatkowski, Glenn J. Hanna, Robert I. Haddad, David Sabatini, Pasi A. Janne, Levi A. Garraway, Jochen H. Lorch. Genomic mechanisms of exquisite sensitivity and acquired resistance to everolimus in a patient with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1724. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1724