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Li X, Kumar S, Harmanci A, Li S, Kitchen RR, Zhang Y, Wali VB, Reddy SM, Woodward WA, Reuben JM, Rozowsky J, Hatzis C, Ueno NT, Krishnamurthy S, Pusztai L, Gerstein M. Whole-genome sequencing of phenotypically distinct inflammatory breast cancers reveals similar genomic alterations to non-inflammatory breast cancers. Genome Med 2021; 13:70. [PMID: 33902690 PMCID: PMC8077918 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-021-00879-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) has a highly invasive and metastatic phenotype. However, little is known about its genetic drivers. To address this, we report the largest cohort of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of IBC cases. METHODS We performed WGS of 20 IBC samples and paired normal blood DNA to identify genomic alterations. For comparison, we used 23 matched non-IBC samples from the Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA). We also validated our findings using WGS data from the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. We examined a wide selection of genomic features to search for differences between IBC and conventional breast cancer. These include (i) somatic and germline single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), in both coding and non-coding regions; (ii) the mutational signature and the clonal architecture derived from these SNVs; (iii) copy number and structural variants (CNVs and SVs); and (iv) non-human sequence in the tumors (i.e., exogenous sequences of bacterial origin). RESULTS Overall, IBC has similar genomic characteristics to non-IBC, including specific alterations, overall mutational load and signature, and tumor heterogeneity. In particular, we observed similar mutation frequencies between IBC and non-IBC, for each gene and most cancer-related pathways. Moreover, we found no exogenous sequences of infectious agents specific to IBC samples. Even though we could not find any strongly statistically distinguishing genomic features between the two groups, we did find some suggestive differences in IBC: (i) The MAST2 gene was more frequently mutated (20% IBC vs. 0% non-IBC). (ii) The TGF β pathway was more frequently disrupted by germline SNVs (50% vs. 13%). (iii) Different copy number profiles were observed in several genomic regions harboring cancer genes. (iv) Complex SVs were more frequent. (v) The clonal architecture was simpler, suggesting more homogenous tumor-evolutionary lineages. CONCLUSIONS Whole-genome sequencing of IBC manifests a similar genomic architecture to non-IBC. We found no unique genomic alterations shared in just IBCs; however, subtle genomic differences were observed including germline alterations in TGFβ pathway genes and somatic mutations in the MAST2 kinase that could represent potential therapeutic targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaotong Li
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Yale Cancer Center, Breast Medical Oncology, Yale School of Medicine, 300 George Street, Suite 120, Rm133, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Sushant Kumar
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
| | - Arif Harmanci
- Center for Precision Health, School of Biomedical Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, Houston, TX USA
| | - Shantao Li
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
| | - Robert R. Kitchen
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
| | - Yan Zhang
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH USA
- The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC – James), Columbus, OH USA
| | - Vikram B. Wali
- Yale Cancer Center, Breast Medical Oncology, Yale School of Medicine, 300 George Street, Suite 120, Rm133, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Sangeetha M. Reddy
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX USA
- Department of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Wendy A. Woodward
- Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
- Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - James M. Reuben
- Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
- Department of Hematopathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Joel Rozowsky
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
| | - Christos Hatzis
- Yale Cancer Center, Breast Medical Oncology, Yale School of Medicine, 300 George Street, Suite 120, Rm133, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Naoto T. Ueno
- Department of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
- Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Savitri Krishnamurthy
- Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Lajos Pusztai
- Yale Cancer Center, Breast Medical Oncology, Yale School of Medicine, 300 George Street, Suite 120, Rm133, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Mark Gerstein
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Computer Science, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., Bass 432A, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
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