Association of Clinical Epidemiologic Exposures and Overall Survival with Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Profiles in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Analysis of the Mayo Clinic AML Epidemiology Cohort
Authors: Torres-Gutierrez César J. , Heckman Michael G. , Hlady Ryan A. , Ketterling Rhett P. , Sproat Lisa Z. , Pearce Kathryn E. , Lesser Elizabeth R. , Diehl Nancy N. , Finn Laura E. , Jiang Liuyan Jennifer , Robertson Keith D. , Cerhan James R. , Foran James M. 
Published: October 2019

Background: We previously demonstrated that putative clinical epidemiologic exposures associated with leukemia risk are prevalent among AML patients, and some are associated with unique cytogenetic risk group and with clinical phenotype (Finn, Cancer Epidemiol, 2015). Herein, we studied genome-wide DNA methylation in a cohort of AML patients to evaluate the association of individual hyper- and hypo-methylated CpG sites with epidemiologic exposures and overall survival.

Methods: The Mayo Clinic AML Epidemiology Cohort is a highly annotated retrospective case series of 295 consecutive patients (pts) with AML diagnosed and treated at Mayo Clinic Florida and Arizona, with central cytogenetics performed in all cases. The prevalence of clinical epidemiologic exposures, past medical and family history as well as medication use and lifestyle was systematically obtained. After IRB approval, we interrogated the cytogenetic database and successfully obtained leukemia DNA from available remnant diagnostic cytogenetic cell pellets in a cohort of 148 AML patients in the Mayo epidemiology case series and performed an assessment of genome-wide DNA methylation using the Infinium HumanMethylation450K BeadChip. Samples were processed using the R Bioconductor package 'minfi' using Subset Within Array Quantile Normalization (PMID: 22703947). Individual CpGs that did not reach a detection p-value of <0.05 were filtered out. An internal control was included on each array to control for significant batch effects. To determine differential methylation status of 473,864 individual CpG sites (after exclusion of 11,648 that did not pass detection p-value QC), CpG sites with low interpatient variability, a standard deviation <0.05 of methylation values, and an interquartile range <0.05 of methylation values and X/Y chromosome probes were excluded from analysis. Epidemiologic and important clinical variables occurring in at least 10 pts or previously-identified as of unique interest but in fewer than 10 pts were evaluated, including sex, BMI, performance status and comorbidities, tobacco and alcohol use, family history of hematologic malignancy, medications of interest, history of toxin exposure, and history of immunosuppression and/or solid organ transplant or of secondary and therapy-related AML (t-AML).

Associations of differential hypo or hypermethylation at 281,259 CpG sites with epidemiologic exposures/clinical variables were evaluated using Spearman's test of correlation (continuous or ordinal exposures), a Wilcoxon rank sum test (dichotomous exposures), or a Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test (multi-category exposures). A Bonferroni correction was applied for multiple testing, after which p <1.8 x 10-7 was considered as significant. To reduce the likelihood of false-negative findings, we additionally considered p <5 x 10-6 as indicating suggestive evidence of an association. CpG sites and associated gene and function was determined using Illumina manifest file & www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene.

Results: Statistically significant associations (p <1.8 x 10-7) with individual epidemiologic and clinical exposures were identified for 109 unique CpG sites, corresponding to differential methylation in the genes listed in Table. Specifically, obesity (predominantly hypomethylation), specific cytogenetic lesions and risk group, and gender were highly significantly associated with unique CpG methylation status, but not smoking, toxin exposure, family history, comorbidity or performance status, secondary or t-AML, immunosuppression, medication use, of family history in the analysis. A further 353 unique CpG sites had defined suggestive associations (ongoing analysis). We also identified 8 additional CpG sites where differential methylation was associated with overall survival (p <5 x 10-6, Table).

Conclusion: Obesity, cytogenetic lesions, and sex are associated with differential methylation of unique CpG sites at AML diagnosis, using stringent univariate statistical criteria. Significant CpG sites were identified in genes previously linked to AML biology and prognosis (DOCK6, HOXB3, MIR10A, FOXN3/CHES1, GPX1, MYST2/KAT7, PTPRD), but some represent novel findings in AML. These preliminary results suggest an association of some AML risk factors and clinical variables with unique gene methylation and will undergo validation in a prospective AML epidemiology dataset.

Disclosures

Cerhan: Jannsen: Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Nanostring: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding. Foran:Agios: Research Funding; Xencor, Inc.: Research Funding.