The evolutionary history of metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours reveals a therapy driven route to high-grade transformationShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Journal of Pathology, ISSN 0022-3417, E-ISSN 1096-9896, Vol. 264, no 4, p. 357-370Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Tumour evolution with acquisition of more aggressive disease characteristics is a hallmark of disseminated cancer. Metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (PanNETs) in particular may progress from a low/intermediate to a high-grade disease. The aim of this work was to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying metastatic progression as well as PanNET transformation from a low/intermediate to a high-grade disease. We performed multi-omics analysis (genome/exome sequencing, total RNA-sequencing and methylation array) of 32 longitudinal samples from six patients with metastatic low/intermediate grade PanNET. The clonal composition of tumour lesions and underlying phylogeny of each patient were determined with bioinformatics analyses. Findings were validated in post-alkylating chemotherapy samples from 24 patients with PanNET using targeted next generation sequencing. We validate the current PanNET evolutionary model with MEN1 inactivation that occurs very early in tumourigenesis. This was followed by pronounced genetic diversity on both spatial and temporal levels, with parallel and convergent tumour evolution involving the ATRX/DAXX and mechanistic target of the rapamycin (mTOR) pathways. Following alkylating chemotherapy treatment, some PanNETs developed mismatch repair deficiency and acquired a hypermutational phenotype. This was validated among 16 patients with PanNET who had high-grade progression after alkylating chemotherapy, of whom eight had a tumour mutational burden >50 (50%). In comparison, among the eight patients who did not show high-grade progression, 0 had a tumour mutational burden >50 (0%; odds ratio ‘infinite’, 95% confidence interval 1.8 to ‘infinite’, p = 0.02). Our findings contribute to broaden the understanding of metastatic/high-grade PanNETs and suggests that therapy driven disease evolution is an important hallmark of this disease.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2024. Vol. 264, no 4, p. 357-370
Keywords [en]
neuroendocrine tumours, tumour evolution, heterogeneity, multi-omics, pancreas, metastasis, mismatch repair, alkylating chemotherapy
National Category
Cancer and Oncology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-523490DOI: 10.1002/path.6348ISI: 001327034800001PubMedID: 38313278Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85205548822OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-523490DiVA, id: diva2:1838893
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2022-06725Swedish Cancer SocietyInsamlingsstiftelsen Lions Cancerforskningsfond Mellansverige Uppsala-ÖrebroÅke Wiberg Foundation2024-02-192024-02-192025-01-30Bibliographically approved