Abstract P5-13-02: Serially biopsied BRCA1/2 mutant breast tumors frequently acquire alterations in BRCA1, BRCA2, and CREBBP
Authors: Sokol Ethan , Sivakumar Smruthy , Decker Brennan , Ross Jeffrey , Hegde Priti 
Published: March 2022

Introduction Tumors with alterations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCAm) are sensitive to poly ADP ribose polymerase inhibitors (PARPi), with significant benefit in ovary, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. Despite strong early responses on PARPi, many patients eventually exhibit relapse. Previous literature has identified BRCA1/2 reversion as a common class of acquired alteration in the resistance setting; however, additional resistance pathways have not been well characterized. Here, we examined 100 BRCAm patients who were profiled with serial biopsy during clinical care to identify possible therapy resistance alterations. Methods Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) was carried out in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified, CAP (College of American Pathologists)-accredited laboratory (Foundation Medicine Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA). Tissue biopsy CGP was performed on FFPE blocks examining at least 324 genes for all classes of alterations (FoundationOne® and FoundationOne® CDx). Liquid biopsy CGP was performed examining at least 62 genes (FoundationACT®, FoundationOne®Liquid).One hundred breast cancer patients with baseline BRCAm were serially profiled with CGP testing during routine clinical care (n=50 tissue then liquid; n=50 tissue for both tests). As a comparator, we examined 1,294 patients without a baseline BRCAm (BRCAwt) profiled with serial biopsy (n = 585 tissue then liquid; n=709 tissue for both tests). Co-occurrence analyses (Fisher’s exact) were run on the full research dataset, including 12,198 breast-biopsied (local) and 16,586 metastatic-biopsied samples. All classes of genomic alterations were included in the analysis. Results Of the serially biopsied samples, 7.2% (100/1,394) had baseline BRCAm. In patients with baseline BRCAm, acquired alterations were frequently observed in BRCA1/2 (17%), ESR1 (16%), TP53 (15%), MYC (12%), CREBBP (10%), RB1 (9%), PIK3CA (9%), and NF1 (5%). To understand if any of these are specific to the BRCAm population, we compared the milieu of acquired alterations to a serially biopsied BRCAwt cohort (n=1,294). While many of the alterations were common and shared across both cohorts, likely due to endocrine therapy use, acquired alterations in BRCA1, BRCA2, and CREBBP were specifically enriched in the BRCAm population (all p&lt;0.005). Acquired BRCA1/2 mutations were predicted reversion mutations and spanned a range of mechanisms, including large deletion/rearrangement events that remove the exon of the truncal mutation, point mutations that change a nonsense BRCA1/2 to a missense event, upstream indels that revert the frame of the truncal BRCA1/2 event, and splice site mutations that lead to a skipping of the truncal BRCA1/2. Of note, a majority of cases with a reversion involved a rearrangement event (9/17; 53%). For patients with a baseline BRCA1/2 short variant mutation, there was a trend towards a higher rate of reversion in BRCA2 v BRCA1 (23.1% v 18.5%, p&gt;0.05). Acquired BRCAm were never observed in cases with baseline deletion of BRCA1/2. The high rate of acquired CREBBP alterations was specific to the BRCAm population (10% BRCAm v 1% BRCAwt; p = 0.0013), suggesting a possible role for CREBBP in platinum or PARPi resistance. Consistent with this, BRCAm and CREBBP significantly co-occur in the metastatic setting (Odds ratio, OR = 1.6; p = 0.016) but not in the local setting (OR = 1.1; p = 0.68). Conclusions Analysis of serially biopsied BRCAm breast cases revealed frequent acquisition of BRCA1/2 reversion mutations and CREBBP alterations that are not frequently observed in BRCAwt samples. Additional studies are warranted to investigate the possible role of CREBBP in PARPi therapy resistance.

Citation Format: Ethan Sokol, Smruthy Sivakumar, Brennan Decker, Jeffrey Ross, Priti Hegde. Serially biopsied BRCA1/2 mutant breast tumors frequently acquire alterations in BRCA1, BRCA2, and CREBBP [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-13-02.