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• UK10K NEURO IMGSAC

  In the UK10K project we propose a series of complementary genetic approaches to find new low frequency/rare variants contributing to disease phenotypes. These will be based on obtaining the genome wide sequence of 4000 samples from the TwinsUK and ALSPAC cohorts (at 6x sequence coverage), and the exome sequence (protein coding regions and related conserved sequence) of 6000 samples selected for extreme phenotypes. Our studies will focus primarily on cardiovascular-related quantitative traits, obesity and related metabolic traits, neurodevelopmental disorders and a limited number of extreme clinical phenotypes that will provide proof-of-concept for future familial trait sequencing. We will analyse directly quantitative traits in the cohorts and the selected traits in the extreme samples, and also use imputation down to 0.1% allele frequency to extend the analyses to further sample sets with genome wide genotype data. In each case we will investigate indels and larger structural variants as well as SNPs, and use statistical methods that combine rare variants in a locus or pathway as well as single-variant approaches.The IMGSAC cohort is an international collection of families containing children ascertained for ASDs (autism spectrum disorders). The affected individuals are have been phenotyped, including using the ADI-R and ADOS instruments. Individuals with a past or current medical disorder of probable etiological significance or TSC have been excluded. Where possible, karyotyping has been performed on one affected individual per family to exclude Fragile X syndrome. Many of the samples have been genotyped, using the Affymetrix 10k and Illumina 1M platforms. All samples to be included in the current study are of UK origin.For further information on this cohort please contact Jeremy Parr (jeremy.parr@newcastle.ac.uk).

  Study EGAS00001000120

• Pharmacological and genomic profiling identifies NFκB-targeted treatment strategies for mantle cell lymphoma

  Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an aggressive malignancy characterized by poor prognosis, underscoring the need for novel therapeutic strategies1. In this study, we employed large-scale pharmacological profiling of 16 pathway inhibitors across more than 100 hematological cell line models to identify novel therapeutic approaches. This screen identified a subset of MCL cell lines that were highly sensitive to the B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling inhibitors ibrutinib and sotrastaurin (STN), which are currently in clinical trials2, 3. Sensitive MCL models exhibited chronic activation of the CARD11-BCL10-MALT1 (CBM) complex and dependency on downstream classical NFκB signaling. In contrast, insensitive cell lines displayed activation of the alternative NFκB pathway. Massively parallel transcriptome sequencing identified mutations in negative regulators of the alternative NFκB pathway in ibrutinib-insensitive cell lines. Notably, sequencing of 165 MCL patient samples revealed that components of the alternative NFκB pathway, particularly TRAF2 and BIRC3, are mutated in roughly 15% of MCL patients. Functional analyses of patient-derived BIRC3 mutant alleles indicated that these are loss-of-function mutants that constitutively activate alternative NFκB signaling. While being associated with insensitivity to ibrutinib, genetic lesions in the alternative pathway conferred dependence on NIK, a kinase that mediates signaling downstream of the TRAF2/3-BIRC2/3 complex. Thus, NIK represents a novel therapeutic target for MCL treatment, particularly for tumors refractory to BCR pathway inhibitors. Collectively, these findings reveal a pattern of mutually exclusive activation of the CBM-NFκB or alternative NIK-NFκB pathways in MCL and provide critical insights into patient stratification strategies for NFκB-pathway targeted agents.

  Study EGAS00001000622

• We evaluate the potential for routine WGS using ONT by sequencing the well-characterised reference sample NA12878 and the genome of an individual with ataxia-pancytopenia syndrome accompanied by severe immune dysregulation.

  Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is becoming widely used in clinical medicine in diagnostic contexts and to inform treatment choice. While current sequencing technologies have been extremely successful, their reliance on short read lengths necessarily involves some limitations: accurately assaying certain genomic regions and classes of variation can be problematic. Recent advances in throughput and cost have made WGS using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION long-read single-molecule sequencer a potential solution to these challenges. Here we evaluate the potential for routine WGS using ONT by sequencing the well-characterised reference sample NA12878 and the genome of an individual with ataxia-pancytopenia syndrome accompanied by severe immune dysregulation, to 82× and 30× respectively. For NA12878, we evaluated single-nucleotide variant (SNV) calls based on data from multiple base-calling algorithms. We demonstrate that phasing metrics from a novel, reference panel-free, long-read-based method can improve variant-calling performance from otherwise modest levels, resulting in a false discovery rate of 7.1% and false negative rate of 8.5%; remaining errors are concentrated near homopolymers and in regions of reduced sequencing coverage. In the clinical sample, we are able to identify and directly phase two non-synonymous de novo variants in SAMD9L, (OMIM #159550) inferring that they both lie on a common paternal haplotype by overlap with parental genotypes at nearby common variants. This work demonstrates that methodological innovation can substantially reduce variant-calling error rates in ONT data, and that with on-going improvements in throughput, base-calling and dedicated long-read-based SNV-calling methodology, ONT offers promise as an option for clinical WGS.

  Study EGAS00001003469

• Post_Mortem_Tissue_COVID19_RNA

  Single cell analysis of post mortem tissue samples from SARS-CoV2-infected patients We aim to directly identify the human cell types infected by SARS-CoV-2 and measure the cellular response to COVID19 infection across 20 different tissues from infected patient autopsies. We have examined the expression pattern of viral entry receptors across healthy human tissues to predict several candidate target cell types across the airway and heart. In addition, high prevalence of cardiac failure and abnormal renal function in COVID19 patients implicates heart and kidney involvement, but the pathogenesis of organ specific damage - whether via a direct cytopathic mechanism or an indirect inflammatory response - remains unknown . Currently, we lack confirmation of target cell types and cellular processes in infected tissues as autopsies are discouraged in most countries due to health and safety risks. Our collaborators Drs Michael Osborn and Brian Hanley (Imperial College) have outlined guidelines to perform post-mortem in COVID19 patients (Hanley et al., 2020) and have established a programme of autopsies for research to be performed in a high-risk facility at Westminster Public Mortuary. Here, we propose to identify infected cell types and aberrant molecular pathologies in this precious tissue resource using single cell and spatial genomics. We will prioritise three organ systems: the human airway, heart and the kidney. We will directly examine the cellular identities of SARS-CoV-2 infected cell types and identify the cellular responses to infection across these organs. This fundamental knowledge will help guide future treatment choices for COVID19. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/

  Study EGAS00001004442

• ctDNA monitoring using patient-specific sequencing and integration of variant reads - Lung cohort

  Circulating tumor-derived DNA (ctDNA) can be used to monitor cancer dynamics noninvasively. Detection of ctDNA can be challenging in patients with low-volume or residual disease, where plasma contains very few tumor-derived DNA fragments. We show that sensitivity for ctDNA detection in plasma can be improved by analyzing hundreds to thousands of mutations that are first identified by tumor genotyping. We describe the INtegration of VAriant Reads (INVAR) pipeline, which combines custom error-suppression methods and signal-enrichment approaches based on biological features of ctDNA. With this approach, the detection limit in each sample can be estimated independently based on the number of informative reads sequenced across multiple patient-specific loci. We applied INVAR to custom hybrid-capture sequencing data from 176 plasma samples from 105 patients with melanoma, lung, renal, glioma, and breast cancer across both early and advanced disease. By integrating signal across a median of >105 informative reads, ctDNA was routinely quantified to 1 mutant molecule per 100,000, and in some cases with high tumor mutation burden and/or plasma input material, to individual parts per million. This resulted in median Area Under the Curve (AUC) values of 0.98 in advanced cancers, and 0.80 in early stage and challenging settings for ctDNA detection. We generalized this method to whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing, showing that the INVAR may be applied without requiring personalized sequencing panels, so long as a tumor mutation list is available. As tumor sequencing becomes increasingly performed, such methods for personalized cancer monitoring may enhance the sensitivity of cancer liquid biopsies.

  Study EGAS00001004447

• Tumor-derived cell lines as pharmacogenomic models to predict therapeutic vulnerabilities in hepatocellular carcinoma

  Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a heterogeneous aggressive malignancy with low efficacy of current therapies at advanced stages. We integrated molecular and pharmacological profiling of a large panel of liver cancer cell lines (LCCL) to assess their clinical relevance as HCC preclinical models and identify new effective therapies and biomarkers of response. We performed multi-omic analysis including whole-exome, RNA and miRNA sequencing and quantification of 126 proteins in a series 34 LCCL coupled with a screening of 29 anti-cancer agents. Molecular profiles of LCCL and primary HCC were compared and we searched for molecular features associated with drug response. Our panel of LCCL faithfully recapitulated the most aggressive molecular "proliferation class" of HCC. Genomic alterations of the RAS-MAPK pathway correlated with trametinib sensitivity that was more potent than FGFR4 inhibitors in tumor cells depending on the FGF19/FGFR4 pathway. Moreover, we showed that FGF19 amplification was only functional in tumor cells that retained a hepatocyte differentiation program with expression of FGFR4, KLB and NR1H4 highlighting the complex interplay between the genomic and transcriptomic context in drug response. We also identified drugs/combination that could target efficiently the transcriptomic "progenitor subclass of HCC", as well as specific genetic contexts such as inactivating mutations in TSC1/TSC2 and TP53 associated with higher sensitivity to the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin and the AURKA inhibitor alisertib, respectively. LCCL represent relevant preclinical models for drug-biomarker discovery in HCC and enabled to identify molecular contexts linked with particular therapeutic vulnerabilities that may be useful to stratify patients in future clinical trials

  Study EGAS00001003536

• Targeting FGFR1 for treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma (H021)

  Purpose: Altered FGFR1 signaling has emerged as therapeutic target in various epithelial malignancies. In contrast, the role of FGFR1 in soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) has not been established. Prompted by the detection and subsequent therapeutic inhibition of amplified FGFR1 in a patient with metastatic leiomyosarcoma, we investigated the oncogenic properties and potential as drug target of FGFR1 in STS.Experimental Design: The frequency of FGFR1 amplification and overexpression, as assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization, microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization and mRNA expression profiling, SNP array profiling, and RNA sequencing, was determined in three independent patient cohorts. The sensitivity of STS cell lines with or without FGFR1 alterations to genetic and pharmacologic FGFR1 inhibition and the signaling pathways engaged by FGFR1 were investigated using short-term viability assays, long-term colony formation assays, and biochemical analysis.Results: Increased FGFR1 copy number was detected in 74 of 190 (38.9%; Cohort 1), 13 of 79 (16.5%; Cohort 2), and 80 of 254 (31.5%; Cohort 3) patients. FGFR1 overexpression occurred in 16 of 79 (20.2%, Cohort 2) and 39 of 254 (15.4%; Cohort 3) patients. Targeting of FGFR1 by short hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown and different small-molecule inhibitors (PD173074, AZD4547, BGJ398) revealed that the requirement for FGFR1 signaling in STS cells is primarily dictated by FGFR1 expression levels, and identified the MAPK-ERK1/2 axis as critical FGFR1 effector pathway.Conclusion: These data identify FGFR1 as driver gene in multiple STS subtypes and support FGFR1 inhibition, guided by patient selection according to FGFR1 expression and monitoring of MAPK-ERK1/2 signaling, as therapeutic option in this challenging group of diseases.H021

  Study EGAS00001001844

• Circulating Tumor DNA in Checkpoint Inhibitor treated Lung Cancer

  BackgroundImmune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are increasingly used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and there is a critical need for novel predictive/prognostic biomarkers. We evaluated whether dynamics of circulating tumor (ctDNA) can identify NSCLC patients who benefit from single agent ICI.MethodsCirculating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from 177 patients was analyzed prior ICI and at first treatment evaluation using a Commercial 77-gene panel. We performed de novo mutation calling and corrected for variants related clonal hematopoiesis. ctDNA changes were evaluated as predictors of tumor response estimated with PET/diagnostic CT and survival.ResultsMutations were detected in 159 of 174 (91.4%) analyzable patients. Most responders presented decreasing ctDNA levels, while non-responders had mixed molecular responses. Patients with a >50% molecular ctDNA decrease or no detectable ctDNA demonstrated improved PFS (5.9 versus 1.8 months; HR 0.49, 95%CI, 0.35-0.67, P < .001), and OS (18.9 versus 9.9 months; HR 0.41, 95%CI, 0.30-0.57, P < .001) compared to patients not achieving these endpoints. Clearance of mutations (and no detected ctDNA) had a similar effect (PFS HR 0.45, 95%CI, 0.32-0.61, P < .001; OS 0.37,95%CI, 0.27-0.52, P < .001) compared to patients having stable or additional mutations. After adjusting for clinical factors both >50% ctDNA decrease (HR 0.4, 95% CI, 0.3-0.6, P < .001) and clearance of mutations (HR 0.42, 95% CI, 0.3-0.6, P < .001) remained independent predictors for PFS and OS.ConclusionsctDNA testing reveals significant prognostic albeit not predictive information in ICI treated advanced NSCLC. This relevant information can be obtained with a commercial easy-to-implement ctDNA test that will facilitate extensive testing.

  Study EGAS00001004847

• Breast cancer women lack normal lifelong immune response after full-term pregnancies

  Immunological tolerance during pregnancy is necessary for women’s bodies to accept the semi-allogenic fetus. Interestingly, “immune evasion”, which consists of some similar immunological changes, was recently proposed as a hallmark of cancer. Looking at these results, it seems paradoxical that increasing number of full-term pregnancies (FTP) reduces the risk of breast cancer in women. Our aim was to use a systems epidemiology approach to investigate this paradox by modelling breast cancer incidence as a function of parity in the Norwegian Women and Cancer (NOWAC) cohort, then testing the mathematical model using gene expression from blood in a subcohort of these women: the NOWAC postgenome cohort. Lastly, we undertook a gene set enrichment analysis for immunological gene sets. A linear trend nicely fitted the dataset showing an 8% decrease in risk for each FTP, independent of stratification on other risk factors and lasting for decades after a woman’s last FTP. However, when we looked at gene expression we found that hundreds of genes showed linear trends in cancer-free controls, but this was not the case in /any/ of the samples from breast cancer cases. In the gene set enrichment analysis, samples consisted of human blood or cord blood and mouse bone marrow or spleen. We found more adaptive gene sets than expected in humans and more innate gene sets than expected in mice. None of the gene sets provided information about the long-term effects of immunological tolerance during pregnancy, but the lack of relevant reductionist experiments hampers our interpretation. We suggest that, after resolution at birth, the immunological tolerance induced by pregnancy augments immune response to cancer development.

  Study EGAS00001002616

• DSRCT RNA genomic sequencing

  Purpose: To further understand the molecular pathogenesis of desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT), a rare but often fatal malignancy occurring primarily in young males, we used next-generation RNA sequencing to investigate the gene expression profiles intrinsic to this disease.Experimental Design: RNA from DSRCT tumor samples were obtained from the Cooperative Human Tissue Network biorepository. RNA sequencing was completed using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 system. Presence of the EWSR1-WT1 fusion was verified using both RNA-sequencing and PCR. Validation studies, including WT1 ChIP-seq, RNA sequencing, and EWS-WT1 knockdown experiments, were performed on an established DSRCT cell line, JN-DSRCT-1. Protein expression of clinically relevant genes determined by RNA sequencing was confirmed using immunohistochemistry. A panel of immune signature genes was also evaluated to identify possible immune therapeutic targets. Results: We analyzed the RNA from 14 tumor samples, of which two were confirmed negative for the diagnostic EWSR1-WT1 translocation. Principal component analysis of the sequencing data indicated that fusion-negative and fusion-positive tumors are transcriptionally distinct entities. Overlapping the significant ChIP-seq peaks with genes found to be highly expressed in the RNA sequencing data revealed that IGF2 and FGFR4 were both highly expressed, and targets of the EWS-WT1 fusion gene. This finding has potential clinical relevance for targeted therapeutic intervention. In addition, we identified the immune checkpoints CD200 and CD276 as potentially targetable genes whose expression is independent of the EWS-WT1 fusion gene in vitro.Conclusions: Despite the transcriptional complexity of this disease, we were able to identify IGF2, FGFR4, CD200, and CD276 as potential therapeutic targets for patients suffering from DSRCT.

  Study EGAS00001002770

• Matching of actionable mutations with therapies in cancer patients: comparison of three commercial decision support platforms

  Purpose: In oncology, precision medicine centers on tailoring the most appropriate therapy to a patient according to their tumor molecular profile. We addressed the question whether there is a consensus in the classification of actionability of somatic variants and their alignment to treatment recommendations. To this end, we evaluated three commercial clinical decision support tools to assess their variant classification and drug matching strategies.Methods: In this two centers study 48 patients with metastatic breast (n=12), colorectal (n=17) or non-small cell lung cancer (n=19) were recruited based on circulating tumor DNA levels in peripheral blood. In individual patients’ plasma samples, we established somatic copy number alterations and somatic mutations across a 77 cancer-associated gene panel and exposed the obtained molecular profiles to the decision support packages NAVIFY Mutation Profiler (NMP; Roche), Qiagen Clinical Insight (QCI) Interpret (Qiagen) and CureMatch Bionov (CureMatch).Results: In the plasma samples, altogether 492 somatic alterations were assessed. Each decision support platform varied in their format of data input, mode of variant classification and strategies for identifying druggable targets and clinical trials, which resulted in discrepancies in tier classification as well as designations of actionability. The frequency of concordant actionable events for tier I-A or tier I-B classifications, i.e. those with the strongest clinical evidence, was only 4.3%, 9.5% and 28.4% when comparing NMP with QCI, NMP with CureMatch, and CureMatch with QCI, respectively. As a consequence, the obtained treatment recommendations differed drastically, and alignment of treatment recommendations was limited to established predictive markers.Conclusions: The lack of standards for the extraction of treatment recommendations from comprehensive tumor molecular profiling data challenge the promising concepts of precision oncology.

  Study EGAS00001004383

• Post_Mortem_Tissue_COVID19_spatial

  Single cell analysis of post mortem tissue samples from SARS-CoV2-infected patients We aim to directly identify the human cell types infected by SARS-CoV-2 and measure the cellular response to COVID19 infection across 20 different tissues from infected patient autopsies. We have examined the expression pattern of viral entry receptors across healthy human tissues to predict several candidate target cell types across the airway and heart. In addition, high prevalence of cardiac failure and abnormal renal function in COVID19 patients implicates heart and kidney involvement, but the pathogenesis of organ specific damage - whether via a direct cytopathic mechanism or an indirect inflammatory response - remains unknown . Currently, we lack confirmation of target cell types and cellular processes in infected tissues as autopsies are discouraged in most countries due to health and safety risks. Our collaborators Drs Michael Osborn and Brian Hanley (Imperial College) have outlined guidelines to perform post-mortem in COVID19 patients (Hanley et al., 2020) and have established a programme of autopsies for research to be performed in a high-risk facility at Westminster Public Mortuary. Here, we propose to identify infected cell types and aberrant molecular pathologies in this precious tissue resource using single cell and spatial genomics. We will prioritise three organ systems: the human airway, heart and the kidney. We will directly examine the cellular identities of SARS-CoV-2 infected cell types and identify the cellular responses to infection across these organs. This fundamental knowledge will help guide future treatment choices for COVID19. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/

  Study EGAS00001004441

• Analysis of RAD51C promoter methylation using targeted bisulfite sequencing (amplicon sequencing) in ovarian cancer pre-clinical models and patient samples.

  In high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC), deleterious mutations in the DNA repair gene RAD51C are established drivers of defective homologous recombination and are emerging biomarkers of PARP inhibitor (PARPi) sensitivity. RAD51C promoter methylation (meRAD51C) is detected at similar frequencies to mutations, yet its effects on PARPi responses remain unresolved. In this study, three HGSC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models with methylation at most or all examined CpG sites in the RAD51C promoter show responses to PARPi. Both complete and heterogeneous methylation patterns were associated with RAD51C gene silencing and homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). PDX models lost meRAD51C following treatment with PARPi rucaparib or niraparib, where a single unmethylated copy of RAD51C was sufficient to drive PARPi resistance. Genomic copy number profiling of one of the PDX models using SNP arrays revealed that this resistance was acquired independently in two genetically distinct lineages. In a cohort of 11 patients with RAD51C-methylated HGSC, various patterns of meRAD51C were associated with genomic 'scarring', indicative of HRD history, but exhibited no clear correlations with clinical outcome. Differences in methylation stability under treatment pressure were also observed between patients, where one HGSC was found to maintain meRAD51C after 6 lines of therapy (4 platinum-based), whilst another HGSC sample was found to have heterozygous meRAD51C and elevated RAD51C gene expression (relative to homozygous meRAD51C controls) after only neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. As meRAD51C loss in a single gene copy was sufficient to cause PARPi resistance in PDX, methylation zygosity should be carefully assessed in previously treated patients when considering PARPi therapy.

  Study EGAS00001005395

• Characterization of DLBCL with a PMBL gene expression signature

  Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) is a type of aggressive B-cell lymphoma that typicallyaffects young adults, characterized by presence of a bulky anterior mediastinal mass. Lymphomas withgene expression features of PMBL have been described in non-mediastinal sites, raising questions abouthow these tumors should be classified.Here, we investigated whether these "non-mediastinal PMBLs" are indeed PMBLs or instead represent adistinct group within DLBCL. From a cohort of 325 de novo DLBCL cases, we identified tumors frompatients without evidence of anterior mediastinal involvement that expressed a PMBL expression signature(nm-PMBLsig-pos, n=16, 5%). The majority of these tumors expressed MAL and CD23 – proteins typicallyobserved in bona fide PMBL (bf-PMBL). Evaluation of clinical features of nm-PMBLsig-pos cases revealedclose associations with DLBCL, and the majority displayed a germinal center B-cell-like cell-of-origin(GCB). In contrast to bf-PMBL, nm-PMBLsig-pos patients presented at an older age, did not show pleuraldisease, and bone/bone marrow involvement was observed in three cases. However, while clinicallydistinct from bf-PMBL, nm-PMBL-sig-pos tumors resembled bf-PMBL at the molecular level with upregulationof immune response, JAK-STAT, and NF-kB signatures. Mutational analysis revealed frequent somatic genemutations in SOCS1, IL4R, ITPKB and STAT6, as well as CD83 and BIRC3, with the latter genes beingsignificantly more frequently affected than in GCB-DLBCL and bf-PMBL.Our data establish nm-PMBLsig-pos lymphomas as a group of DLBCL with distinct phenotypic and geneticfeatures, and potential implications for gene expression- and mutation-based subtyping of aggressive Bcell lymphoma and related targeted therapies.

  Study EGAS00001005057

• ctDNA monitoring using patient-specific sequencing and integration of variant reads - Breast cohort

  Circulating tumor-derived DNA (ctDNA) can be used to monitor cancer dynamics noninvasively. Detection of ctDNA can be challenging in patients with low-volume or residual disease, where plasma contains very few tumor-derived DNA fragments. We show that sensitivity for ctDNA detection in plasma can be improved by analyzing hundreds to thousands of mutations that are first identified by tumor genotyping. We describe the INtegration of VAriant Reads (INVAR) pipeline, which combines custom error-suppression methods and signal-enrichment approaches based on biological features of ctDNA. With this approach, the detection limit in each sample can be estimated independently based on the number of informative reads sequenced across multiple patient-specific loci. We applied INVAR to custom hybrid-capture sequencing data from 176 plasma samples from 105 patients with melanoma, lung, renal, glioma, and breast cancer across both early and advanced disease. By integrating signal across a median of >105 informative reads, ctDNA was routinely quantified to 1 mutant molecule per 100,000, and in some cases with high tumor mutation burden and/or plasma input material, to individual parts per million. This resulted in median Area Under the Curve (AUC) values of 0.98 in advanced cancers, and 0.80 in early stage and challenging settings for ctDNA detection. We generalized this method to whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing, showing that the INVAR may be applied without requiring personalized sequencing panels, so long as a tumor mutation list is available. As tumor sequencing becomes increasingly performed, such methods for personalized cancer monitoring may enhance the sensitivity of cancer liquid biopsies.

  Study EGAS00001004446

• Germline variants in patients with rare cancers and their implications for precision cancer medicine: experiences from the Multicenter MASTER Trial by the German Cancer Consortium (HIPO_021)

  The era of precision oncology entails an increasing amount of molecular data from tumor sequencing in research and diagnostics. In this setting, germline variant analysis may add clinical benefits for patients and family members. In this study, we evaluated germline variants from genome/exome matched tumor-blood sequencing in 1.485 advanced cancer patients within a prospective observational study carried out by the German Cancer Consortium. Included patients had cancers of rare entities (79.2%) or were under the age of 51 at first diagnosis (76.6%). Ten percent of the patients harbored pathogenic germline variants in 35 tumor predisposition genes with autosomal-dominant inheritance such as BRCA1, BRCA2, TP53, RB1, CHEK2, ATM, PALB2, SDHB etc., while 4.6% of the patients were carriers of pathogenic germline variants in 18 genes with autosomal-recessive inheritance of tumor predisposition. Based on pathogenic germline variants, 14% of the patients received genetic counselling recommendations in the molecular tumor board report. Forty five percent of pathogenic germline variants supported a molecular treatment recommendation, which was implemented for 28 patients. Furthermore, we compared our approach and results to previous studies, broadening the insight into pan cancer germline findings but also revealing differences between studies on various levels, such as cohort demographics, tumor entities, gene nominations, variant detection and variant interpretation. Our data support the importance of germline variant interpretation in precision oncology studies for patients and their families, if applicable. However, guidelines for evaluation and reporting of germline variants in the context of genetic tumor profiling need to be established and further research on the relevance of germline mutations as biomarkers for treatment recommendations is needed.

  Study EGAS00001005537

• DNA methylation-based prognostic subtypes of chordoma tumors in tissue

  Chordomas are rare malignant bone cancers of the skull-base and spine. Patient survival is variable and not reliably predicted using clinical factors or molecular features. This study identifies prognostic epigenetic chordoma subtypes that are detected noninvasively using plasma methylomes. Methylation profiles of 68 chordoma surgical samples were obtained between 1996 and 2018 across three international centers along with matched plasma methylomes where available. Consensus clustering identified two stable tissue clusters with a disease-specific survival difference that was independent of clinical factors in a multivariate Cox analysis (HR = 14.2, 95%CI: 2.1–94.8, P = 0.0063). Immune-related pathways with genes hypomethylated at promoters and increased immune cell abundance were observed in the poorperforming “Immune-infiltrated” subtype. Cell-to-cell interaction plus extracellular matrix pathway hypomethylation and higher tumor purity were observed in the better-performing “Cellular” subtype. The findings were validated in additional DNA methylation and RNA sequencing datasets as well as with immunohistochemical staining. Plasma methylomes distinguished chordomas from other clinical differential diagnoses by applying fifty chordoma-versusother binomial generalized linear models in random 20% testing sets (mean AUROC = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.52–1.00). Tissue-based and plasma-based methylation signals were highly correlated in both prognostic clusters. Additionally, leave-one-out models accurately classified all tumors into their correct cluster based on plasma methylation data. Here, we show the first identification of prognostic epigenetic chordoma subtypes and first use of plasma methylome based biomarkers to noninvasively diagnose and subtype chordomas. These results may transform patient management by allowing treatment aggressiveness to be balanced with patient risk according to prognosis.

  Study EGAS00001006406

• Combination of CDK4/6 with BET-bromodomain and PI3K/mTOR inhibitors in medulloblastoma in vitro and in vivo

  Despite improvement in the treatment of medulloblastoma (MB) over the last years, numerous patients with MYC- and MYCN-driven tumors still fail the current therapeutic regimen. The retinoblastoma (RB) pathway is often compromised in MB with RB remaining intact suggesting that CDK4/6 inhibition might represent a therapeutic strategy for which drug combination remains understudied. Using tumor lines grown in stem cell conditions referred as tumorspheres as well as tumor cells freshly dissociated from the brain of mice harboring intracranial patient-derived xenografts (PDX) of Group3 (G3) and Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) MB, we conducted high throughput drug combination screens using the CDK4/6 inhibitor (CDK4/6i) ribociclib as an anchor and 87 oncology drugs approved by FDA or currently in clinical trials. Bromodomain and extra terminal (BET) and PI3K/mTOR inhibitors potentiated ribociclib’s inhibition of proliferation in G3 and SHH MB. A reverse combination screen using BET inhibitor JQ1 as the anchor, revealed the three FDA approved CDK4/6i as the most potentiating drugs. Those synergistic combinations were tested in vivo in mice intracranially implanted with G3 and SHH MB tumor cells. Ribociclib showed single agent activity in several in vivo MB models. However, despite in vitro synergy, combinations of ribociclib with JQ1 and ribociclib with the PI3K/mTOR inhibitor paxalisib failed to improve the survival of MB bearing mice compared to ribociclib alone. Our data illustrates the difficulty in translating in vitro findings to in vivo for brain tumors partly due to insufficient free brain concentration and altered signaling pathways activation in vitro compared to in vivo.

  Study EGAS00001006286

• Long-term temporal stability of peripheral blood DNA methylation alterations in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

  Introduction There is great current interest in the potential application of DNA methylation alterations in peripheral blood as biomarkers of susceptibility, progression, and treatment response in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To date, the intra-individual stability of peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) methylation in IBD patients, a key consideration in biomarker development, has not been characterised. Here, we studied the long-term stability of all probes located on the Illumina HumanMethylation EPIC BeadChip array. Methods We followed a cohort of 46 adult IBD patients (36 Crohn’s disease (CD), 10 ulcerative colitis (UC), median age 44 (IQR: 27-56), 50% female) that received standard care without any intervention at the Amsterdam UMC. Paired PBL samples were collected at two time points with a median 7 (range: 2-9) years in between. Differential methylation and intra-class correlation (ICC) analyses were used to identify time-associated differences and temporally stable CpGs, respectively. Results Around 60% of all CpG loci on the EPIC array presented poor (ICC <0.50); 119,388 (≈14%) and 41,274 (≈5%) showed good (ICC ≥0.75) or excellent (ICC ≥0.90) intra-individual stability. Functional over-representation analyses of the stable methylated CpGs implicated genes involved in cell-cell signaling, adhesion and neurogenesis. Focusing on previously identified consistently differentially methylated positions indicated that 22 CD-, 11 UC-, and 24 IBD-associated loci demonstrated good stability (ICC ≥0.75) over time, where we observed a marked stability of CpG loci associated to the HLA genes. Conclusion Our data provide insight into the long-term stability of the PBL DNA methylome within an IBD context, facilitating the selection of biologically relevant and robust IBD-associated epigenetic biomarkers with increased potential for independent validation.

  Study EGAS00001006501

• Immune microenvironment and lineage tracing help deciphering Rosette-forming GlioNeuronal Tumors: a multi-omic analysis of 9 cases

  Rosette-forming GlioNeuronal Tumor (RGNT) is a rare central nervous system neoplasm containing two components, glial and neuronal. The delineation of histological diagnosis of RGNT from similar low-grade tumors such as pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) and ganglioglioma (GG) may be challenging. We performed here a comprehensive molecular analysis of a cohort of tumors with same histology features to identify molecular characteristics of RGNT. A cohort of 9 rosette-forming tumors histologically-diagnosed were analyzed at molecular level using multimodal approaches as Whole Exome Sequencing (WES), RNAseq and methylome. In our cohort, 3 tumors were plotted within the Methylation Class-RGNT (MC-RGNT) characterized by FGFR1 mutation associated with PIK3CA or NF1 mutations. Transcriptome analysis was performed in 7 cases. RNAseq identified a “Hot” and a “Cold” transcriptomic group; the latter includes the 3 MC-RGNT and 1 MC-Pilocytic Astrocytoma and exhibited a “Cold” immune tumor microenvironment in comparison with the “Hot” group. The distinct immune cell content of both groups was confirmed by quantitative immunostainings. Get Set Enrichment Analysis showed that the “Cold” group had upregulated NOTCH pathway and mainly oligodendrocyte precursor cell and neuronal phenotypes while the “Hot” group exhibited predominantly astrocytic and neural stem cell phenotypes. In silico deconvolution identified the cerebellar granule cell lineage as a putative origin and as the cell context to understand the effects of genetic alterations and NOTCH signaling. Histological diagnosis of rosette-forming tumors encompasses heterogeneous tumor entities. Our study identified distinct tumor cell contexts and microenvironments as key features to better understand and manage these neoplasms.

  Study EGAS00001006502

• Exome sequencing from cfDNA blood samples. 159 samples at 2x101bp Illumina reads in Fastq format.

  Differential presence of exons (DPE) by next generation sequencing (NGS) is a method of interpretation of whole exome sequencing. This method has been proposed to design a predictive and diagnostic algorithm with clinical value in plasma from patients bearing colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim of the present study was to determine a common exonic signature to discriminate between different clinical pictures, such as non-metastatic, metastatic and non-disease (healthy), using a sustainable and novel technology in liquid biopsy. Through DPE analysis, we determined the differences in DNA exon levels circulating in plasma between patients bearing CRC vs. healthy, patients bearing CRC metastasis vs. non-metastatic and patients bearing CRC metastasis vs. healthy comparisons. We identified a set of 510 exons (469 up and 41 down) whose differential presence in plasma allowed us to group and classify between the three cohorts. Random forest classification (machine learning) was performed and an estimated out-of-bag (OOB) error rate of 35.9% was obtained and the predictive model had an accuracy of 75% with a confidence interval (CI) of 56.6-88.5. In conclusion, the DPE analysis allowed us to discriminate between different patho-physiological status such as metastatic, non-metastatic and healthy donors. In addition, this analysis allowed us to obtain very significant values with respect to previous published results, since we increased the number of samples in our study. These results suggest that circulating DNA in patient’s plasma may be actively released by cells and may be involved in intercellular communication and, therefore, may play a pivotal role in malignant transformation (genometastasis).

  Study EGAS00001006656

• Integrative analysis of exome-seq, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq (bulk and single-cell), and Hi-C data generated from 3-D spatially mapped samples acquired during surgical resection from 10 patients diagnosed with IDH-WT glioblastoma

  Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary brain cancer in adults, remains incurable with no targeted therapies approved despite decades of investigation into its molecular landscape. Treatment failure is attributed to intratumoral heterogeneity in the GBM genome and epigenome, which foster tumor evolution and selection of resistant clones. However, tumor evolution and intratumoral heterogeneity remain poorly understood on the level of the whole tumor as most studies are based on single samples per patient and lack spatial context. Here, we have used 3-D neuronavigation during surgical resection for 10 primary IDH-WT GBM patients to collect 102 samples representing maximal tumor diversity, each mapped by 3-D spatial coordinates. We have applied a strategic set of genomic and epigenomic assays spanning multiple levels of resolution to discover, orthogonally validate, and functionally assess drivers of tumor evolution and intratumoral heterogeneity. These include extrachromosomal DNA amplifications, chromothripsis events, inversions, and translocations that disrupt both the GBM genome and epigenome while generating fusion transcripts and opportunities for therapeutic intervention. We define epigenomic programs that contribute to GBM evolution and intratumoral heterogeneity, revealing their 3-D spatial patterning within whole tumors and their cell type(s) of origin in single-cell data from the same tumor samples. Notably, we distinguish neuronal, glial, and immune programs aberrantly active in tumor cells from their counterparts in normal cells and discover NEUROD1, JUN/FOS, and NF1 transcription factors as key drivers of GBM evolution and growth. Collectively, these data provide unprecedented insight into GBM evolution and intratumoral heterogeneity from single-cell to whole-tumor resolution, redefining current understanding and providing a rich resource of targets for therapeutic investigation.

  Study EGAS00001006785

• Copy numbers in resectable gastric cancer treated with surgery alone

  Purpose: Gastric cancer is a heterogeneous disease requiring stratification to recognize its underlying biology and variable clinical outcome. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) recognizes four molecular subgroups: Epstein-Barr virus positive (EBV+) and microsatellite instable (MSI) with superior survival compared to genomically stable (GS) and chromosomal instable (CIN). Since classification criteria to distinguish GS from CIN were not defined, alternative markers such as Lauren’s histopathology or CDH1/p53 immunohistochemistry are commonly applied. Here we compared survival of gastric cancer subgroups determined by four methods. Experimental Design: EBV- and microsatellite stable tumors from a total of 309 patients treated with surgery alone were assigned to subgroups by: (i) specific copy number aberrations as determined by TCGA (GS or CIN), (ii) genome instability index (GII; high or low), (iii) Lauren’s classification (diffuse or intestinal), and (iv) CDH1/p53 immunohistochemistry (IHC; aberrant CDH1, normal-, or aberrant p53 expression). Subgroups were associated with cancer-related survival (CRS). Results: Five-year CRS was 42.0% for diffuse and 49.5% for intestinal type tumors, and 57.8% for GS and 41.6% for CIN tumors. Classification by GII or CDH1/p53 IHC did not correlate with CRS. The combination of TCGA and Lauren classifications resulted in four distinct subgroups. Five-year CRS for GS-intestinal (n=24), GS-diffuse (n=57), CIN-intestinal (n=142) and CIN-diffuse (n=86) was 61.4%, 56.5%, 47.6%, and 31.5%, respectively. Conclusions: TCGA’s GS and CIN have additional prognostic value to Lauren’s diffuse and intestinal subgroups in gastric cancer. GS-intestinal, GS-diffuse, CIN-intestinal and CIN-diffuse constitute biologically distinct entities and are suggested as stratification variables for future studies.

  Study EGAS00001007394

• ExomeSeq Neoantigen Immunogenicity Landscapes

  Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy is a cornerstone of oncologic treatment for patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other malignancies. Neoantigen immunoediting drives ICB efficacy, yet the fundamental physiochemical characteristics of neoantigens and how neoantigen immunogenicity shapes treatment response remains poorly understood. To help address these questions, a prospective clinical trial of NSCLC patients treated with nivolumab was conducted. We assessed genomic alterations in tumors from 58 patients and performed large-scale neoepitope immunogenicity analyses, before and during treatment (CheckMate153, CA209-153). Tumors were analyzed by whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing. In responding patients, loss of mutation and neoantigen burden early during therapy associated with clinical benefit. We evaluated the immunogenicity of 1,453 candidate neoantigens and identified 502 neopeptides that bound to MHC I and 196 neopeptides that were immunogenically recognized by T cells in the setting of nivolumab treatment. These T cell reactive neoantigens were differentially present in clonal populations that underwent distinctive evolutionary trajectories across responders and nonresponders. Mapping these neoantigens to tumor clonal dynamics and clinical response revealed strong selection against immunogenic neoantigen harboring clones compared to non-immunogenic clones. Using this large collection of neoantigens, we identified position specific amino acid features related to immunogenicity, which we used to develop and validate an immunogenicity score. Changes in the genomic and neoantigen immunogenicity landscapes were accompanied by temporal changes in the tumor microenvironment. Nivolumab-induced microenvironmental evolution in NSCLC shared some similarities with that in melanoma, yet critical differences in immunologic programs were apparent from comparative network analysis between tumor types. This study provides unprecedented molecular portraits of the neoantigen landscapes underlying nivolumab’s mechanism of action.

  Study EGAS00001007508

• Biomarker Screen for Efficacy of Oncolytic Virotherapy in Patient-derived Pancreatic Cancer Cultures

  Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a tumour entity with unmet medical need. To assess the therapeutic potential of oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) against PDAC, different oncolytic viruses (OVs) are currently investigated in clinical trials. However, systematic comparisons of these different OVs in terms of efficacy against PDAC and biomarkers predicting therapeutic response are lacking. We screened fourteen patient-derived PDAC cultures for their sensitivity to five clinically relevant OVs, namely serotype 5 adenovirus Ad5-hTERT, herpes virus T-VEC, measles vaccine strain MV-NIS, reovirus jin-3, and protoparvovirus H 1PV using live cell analysis, quantification of viral genome/gene expression, cell viability as well as cytotoxicity assays. Sensitivity was correlated with transcriptome profiles to identify potential predictive biomarkers for response to OVT. Patient-derived PDAC cultures showed individual response patterns to OV treatment. Twelve of fourteen cultures were responsive to at least one OV, with no single OV proving superior or inferior across all cultures. Known host factors for distinct viruses were retrieved as potential biomarkers. Compared to the basal-like molecular subtype, the quasi-mesenchymal subtype of PDAC was more sensitive to H-1PV, jin-3, and T-VEC. Expression of viral entry receptors did not correlate with sensitivity to OV treatment. Rather, cellular pathways controlling immunological, metabolic, and proliferative signalling appeared to determine outcome. For instance, high baseline expression of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) correlated with relative resistance to oncolytic measles virus, whereas cGAS expression was associated with exceptional response. Combination treatment of MV-NIS with a cGAS inhibitor improved tumour cell killing in several PDAC cultures.

  Study EGAS00001007001