Abstract 6372: Germline pathogenic variants are enriched in pediatric central nervous system tumor patients and associate with somatic functional consequences
Authors: Corbett Ryan J. , Kaufman Rebecca , McQuaid Shelly W. , Vaksman Zalman , Phul Saksham , Brown Miguel A. , Mason Jennifer L. , Desai Heena , Hausler Ryan , Naqvi Ammar S. , Chroni Antonia , Geng Zhuangzhuang , Zhang Bo , Zhong Chuwei , Zhu Yuankun , Heath Allison P. , Li Marilyn , BioBank Penn Medicine , Storm Phillip B. , Resnick Adam C. , Maxwell Kara N. , Bornhorst Miriam , Cole Kristina A. , Waanders Angela J. , MacFarland Suzanne P. , Rokita Jo Lynne , Diskin Sharon J. 
Published: March 2024

The genetic contribution of rare pathogenic germline variation to central nervous system (CNS) tumor formation in pediatric patients without a family history of cancer remains unclear. We sought to characterize the prevalence, spectrum, and clinical significance of pathogenic germline variation in cancer predisposition genes (CPGs) in 838 patients profiled in the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas (PBTA) by whole genome sequencing (n=821) or whole exome sequencing (n=17). Rare variants in 214 CPGs were annotated as pathogenic (P) or likely pathogenic (LP) consistent with American College of Medical Genetics criteria using AutoGVP, our open-source automated pathogenicity assessment tool. To assess enrichment of P/LP variants in the PBTA, we compared the frequency of CPG P/LP variants in cases to a tumor-free control cohort from Penn Medicine BioBank (PMBB; n=6,295). Somatic alterations, mutational signatures, and gene set enrichment analyses from matched tumor sequencing were integrated to characterize functional consequences associated with germline pathogenic variation. We observed 215 germline P/LP variants within 76 distinct CPGs in 189 (22.6%) PBTA patients. CPG P/LP variants were most prevalent among patients with a plexiform neurofibroma diagnosis (9/14, 64.3%), and least prevalent among patients with craniopharyngioma (3/39, 7.8%). We detected syndrome-associated P/LP variants in 45/58 (77.6%) patients with a clinically reported cancer predisposition syndrome and incidentally in another 37 patients. CPG P/LP variants were significantly enriched in the PBTA cohort relative to the PMBB control cohort (OR=2.0, p=1.0E-12, CI=1.6-2.4), and NF1 harbored the most significant excess P/LP variant burden (OR=30.7, p=4.57E-13, CI=11.2-105.1). We observed a significant enrichment of mismatch repair (MMR) gene P/LP variants in patients with high-grade gliomas (HGG) and tumors from MMR P/LP carriers exhibited significantly higher MMR-deficiency mutational signature exposures relative to tumors from non-carrier HGG patients (SBS14: W=478, p=1.71E-05). Overall, 90/215 (41.9%) of identified germline P/LP variants co-occurred with at least one corresponding somatic alteration in matched tumors, including oncogenic SNV (n=5), copy number variation (n=28), loss of heterozygosity (n=54), differential gene expression (n=23), and proximal alternative splicing (n=19). In summary, rare germline P/LP variants are enriched in PBTA patients and are associated with somatic events in the same gene, resulting in gene- and pathway-specific functional consequences. Our work emphasizes a role for pathogenic germline variation in pediatric CNS tumor development and frequent under-identification of cancer predisposition syndromes, underscoring the importance of germline sequencing in personalized patient care strategies.

Citation Format: Ryan J. Corbett, Rebecca Kaufman, Shelly W. McQuaid, Zalman Vaksman, Saksham Phul, Miguel A. Brown, Jennifer L. Mason, Heena Desai, Ryan Hausler, Ammar S. Naqvi, Antonia Chroni, Zhuangzhuang Geng, Bo Zhang, Chuwei Zhong, Yuankun Zhu, Allison P. Heath, Marilyn Li, Penn Medicine BioBank, Phillip B. Storm, Adam C. Resnick, Kara N. Maxwell, Miriam Bornhorst, Kristina A. Cole, Angela J. Waanders, Suzanne P. MacFarland, Jo Lynne Rokita, Sharon J. Diskin. Germline pathogenic variants are enriched in pediatric central nervous system tumor patients and associate with somatic functional consequences [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 6372.