Enric Domingo1, Luke Freeman-Mills2, Emily Rayner2, Mark Glaire3, Sarah Briggs2, Louis Vermeulen4, Evelyn Fessler4, Jan Paul Medema4, Arnoud Boot5, Hans Morreau5, Tom van Wezel5, Gerrit-Jan Liefers6, Ragnhild A Lothe7, Stine A Danielsen7, Anita Sveen7, Arild Nesbakken8, Inti Zlobec9, Alessandro Lugli9, Viktor H Koelzer10, Martin D Berger11, Sergi Castellví-Bel12, Jenifer Muñoz12, Marco de Bruyn13, Hans W Nijman13, Marco Novelli14, Kay Lawson14, Dahmane Oukrif14, Eleni Frangou15, Peter Dutton15, Sabine Tejpar16, Mauro Delorenzi17, Rachel Kerr18, David Kerr19, Ian Tomlinson20, David N Church21. 1. Molecular and Population Genetics Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Oxford Centre for Cancer Gene Research and NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 2. Molecular and Population Genetics Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 3. Cancer Genomics and Immunology Group, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 4. Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, Center for Experimental Molecular Medicine, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 5. Department of Pathology, Leiden, Netherlands. 6. Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands. 7. K G Jebsen Colorectal Cancer Research Centre, Oslo, Norway; Department of Molecular Oncology, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. 8. K G Jebsen Colorectal Cancer Research Centre, Oslo, Norway; Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. 9. Institute of Pathology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 10. Molecular and Population Genetics Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Institute of Pathology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 11. Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 12. Gastroenterology Department, Hospital Clínic, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBEREHD), University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. 13. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands. 14. Department of Histopathology, UCL, London, UK. 15. Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 16. Department of Molecular Digestive Oncology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. 17. Ludwig Center for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland; Department of Oncology, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; SIB Swiss Institute Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland. 18. Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Oxford Cancer Centre, Churchill Hospital, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 19. Oxford Cancer Centre, Churchill Hospital, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 20. Molecular and Population Genetics Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Oxford Centre for Cancer Gene Research and NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 21. Cancer Genomics and Immunology Group, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Oxford Cancer Centre, Churchill Hospital, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: dchurch@well.ox.ac.uk.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Precision cancer medicine depends on defining distinct tumour subgroups using biomarkers that may occur at very modest frequencies. One such subgroup comprises patients with exceptionally mutated (ultramutated) cancers caused by mutations that impair DNA polymerase epsilon (POLE) proofreading. METHODS: We examined the association of POLE proofreading domain mutation with clinicopathological variables and immune response in colorectal cancers from clinical trials (VICTOR, QUASAR2, and PETACC-3) and colorectal cancer cohorts (Leiden University Medical Centre 1 and 2, Oslo 1 and 2, Bern, AMC-AJCC-II, and Epicolon-1). We subsequently investigated its association with prognosis in stage II/III colorectal cancer by Cox regression of pooled individual patient data from more than 4500 cases from these studies. FINDINGS: Pathogenic somatic POLE mutations were detected in 66 (1·0%) of 6517 colorectal cancers, and were mutually exclusive with mismatch repair deficiency (MMR-D) in the 6277 cases for whom both markers were determined (none of 66 vs 833 [13·4%] of 6211; p<0·0001). Compared with cases with wild-type POLE, cases with POLE mutations were younger at diagnosis (median 54·5 years vs 67·2 years; p<0·0001), were more frequently male (50 [75·8%] of 66 vs 3577 [55·5%] of 6445; p=0·0010), more frequently had right-sided tumour location (44 [68·8%] of 64 vs 2463 [39·8%] of 6193; p<0·0001), and were diagnosed at an earlier disease stage (p=0·006, χ2 test for trend). Compared with mismatch repair proficient (MMR-P) POLE wild-type tumours, POLE-mutant colorectal cancers displayed increased CD8+ lymphocyte infiltration and expression of cytotoxic T-cell markers and effector cytokines, similar in extent to that observed in immunogenic MMR-D cancers. Both POLE mutation and MMR-D were associated with significantly reduced risk of recurrence compared with MMR-P colorectal cancers in multivariable analysis (HR 0·34 [95% CI 0·11-0·76]; p=0·0060 and 0·72 [0·60-0·87]; p=0·00035), although the difference between the groups was not significant. INTERPRETATION: POLE proofreading domain mutations identify a subset of immunogenic colorectal cancers with excellent prognosis. This association underscores the importance of rare biomarkers in precision cancer medicine, but also raises important questions about how to identify and implement them in practice. FUNDING: Cancer Research UK, Academy of Medical Sciences, Health Foundation, EU, ERC, NIHR, Wellcome Trust, Dutch Cancer Society, Dutch Digestive Foundation.
BACKGROUND: Precision cancer medicine depends on defining distinct tumour subgroups using biomarkers that may occur at very modest frequencies. One such subgroup comprises patients with exceptionally mutated (ultramutated) cancers caused by mutations that impair DNA polymerase epsilon (POLE) proofreading. METHODS: We examined the association of POLE proofreading domain mutation with clinicopathological variables and immune response in colorectal cancers from clinical trials (VICTOR, QUASAR2, and PETACC-3) and colorectal cancer cohorts (Leiden University Medical Centre 1 and 2, Oslo 1 and 2, Bern, AMC-AJCC-II, and Epicolon-1). We subsequently investigated its association with prognosis in stage II/III colorectal cancer by Cox regression of pooled individual patient data from more than 4500 cases from these studies. FINDINGS: Pathogenic somatic POLE mutations were detected in 66 (1·0%) of 6517 colorectal cancers, and were mutually exclusive with mismatch repair deficiency (MMR-D) in the 6277 cases for whom both markers were determined (none of 66 vs 833 [13·4%] of 6211; p<0·0001). Compared with cases with wild-type POLE, cases with POLE mutations were younger at diagnosis (median 54·5 years vs 67·2 years; p<0·0001), were more frequently male (50 [75·8%] of 66 vs 3577 [55·5%] of 6445; p=0·0010), more frequently had right-sided tumour location (44 [68·8%] of 64 vs 2463 [39·8%] of 6193; p<0·0001), and were diagnosed at an earlier disease stage (p=0·006, χ2 test for trend). Compared with mismatch repair proficient (MMR-P) POLE wild-type tumours, POLE-mutant colorectal cancers displayed increased CD8+ lymphocyte infiltration and expression of cytotoxic T-cell markers and effector cytokines, similar in extent to that observed in immunogenic MMR-D cancers. Both POLE mutation and MMR-D were associated with significantly reduced risk of recurrence compared with MMR-P colorectal cancers in multivariable analysis (HR 0·34 [95% CI 0·11-0·76]; p=0·0060 and 0·72 [0·60-0·87]; p=0·00035), although the difference between the groups was not significant. INTERPRETATION: POLE proofreading domain mutations identify a subset of immunogenic colorectal cancers with excellent prognosis. This association underscores the importance of rare biomarkers in precision cancer medicine, but also raises important questions about how to identify and implement them in practice. FUNDING: Cancer Research UK, Academy of Medical Sciences, Health Foundation, EU, ERC, NIHR, Wellcome Trust, Dutch Cancer Society, Dutch Digestive Foundation.
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