Search Results - EGA European Genome-Phenome Archive

Cutaneous Melanoma GWAS Combining Multiple Populations and Risk Phenotypes

Most genetic susceptibility to cutaneous melanoma (CM) remains to be discovered. Meta-analysis genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 36,760 melanoma cases (67% newly-genotyped) and 375,188 controls identified 54 significant loci with 68 independent SNPs. Analysis of risk estimates across geographical regions and host factors suggests the acral melanoma subtype is uniquely unrelated to pigmentation. Combining this meta-analysis with nevus count and hair colour GWAS, and transcriptome association approaches, uncovered 31 potential secondary loci, for a total of 85 CM susceptibility loci. These findings provide substantial insights into CM genetic architecture, reinforcing the importance of nevogenesis, pigmentation, and telomere maintenance together with identifying potential new pathways for CM pathogenesis.

Study phs001868

Genetics of Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma

Mycosis fungoides (MF) is a common extranodal T-cell lymphoma primarily arising in the skin. In early disease stages, MF presents as skin patches and plaques that in some cases may progress to tumor and disperse to lymph nodes and other internal organs. The 10-year overall survival is 50% in advanced stages. Early diagnosis is difficult as the histology overlaps with features of inflammatory skin diseases. Even when the diagnosis is established, there are no prognostic markers that predict whether the disease will be aggressive or indolent. Lastly, there are no curative treatments and MF will invariably relapse, even after aggressive chemotherapy. The disease is a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic challenge. The main objective of this study is to address the question of tumor heterogeneity in MF. To date, MF is considered to be monoclonal, derived from a transformed, mature memory T-cell. However, clinical observations and preliminary data suggest that MF comprises multiple subclones, which may be of importance for understanding disease evolution and resistance to therapy. We plan to address this objective using Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) of MF tissue prepared by laser microdissection (LMD).

Study phs001877

Single Cell Genomic Analysis of Lymphoma

Our study aimed to define the extent of heterogeneity between anatomically separated tumor manifestations in follicular lymphoma at single-cell resolution. We subjected single-cell suspensions derived from nodal, synchronously-acquired fine needle aspirations from two distinct tumor sites to high-throughput microfluidics-based single-cell RNA sequencing. By comparing the relative composition of the tumor subpopulations between the two tumor sites, we found that some patients can exhibit site-to-site differences. While the overall composition of the tumor microenvironment did not differ significantly between sites, we did detect a specific correlation between site-to-site tumor heterogeneity and T follicular helper cell abundance. Our study demonstrates the significant limitations of a solitary biopsy in defining the full scope of a patient's disease.

Study phs002188

Somatic Genome Dynamics of Barrett's Esophagus Patients with Non-Cancer and Cancer Outcomes

A case-control study was designed with 80 participants diagnosed with Barrett's Esophagus (BE) selected from a larger case-cohort study (Li et al., 2014, PMID: 24253313) within the Seattle Barrett's Esophagus Program (SBEP) at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The study included 40 cases with BE with non-cancer outcomes, "NCO", who did not progress to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA), and 40 controls who progressed to an endoscopically detected, incident EA (cancer outcome, "CO"). For each patient, two timepoints were evaluated (T1 and T2). NCO were matched to CO based on age at T1 (T1=first endoscopy with sufficient sample availability), and time between T1 and T2 (T2 in CO=time of diagnosis of incident EA). In 10 NCO, a third time point (T3), a mean of 13.2 years after T1, was also sequenced. Mapped endoscopic biopsies, at 1/3 and 2/3 annotated distances from the gastroesophageal junction within the Barrett's segment, were sampled per patient at each timepoint. Each biopsy was purified to separate BE epithelium from stroma, and DNA was extracted from purified epithelium for 60X WGS and 2.5M SNP array; normal control blood (N=62) or normal gastric sample (N=18) were analyzed by 30X WGS and 2.5M SNP array. An additional seven normal gastric biopsy samples in seven patients with normal control blood were also sequenced at 60X as controls. All research participants contributing clinical data and esophageal samples to this study provided written informed consent, subject to oversight by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center IRB Committee D (Reg ID 5619).

Study phs001912

PAK4 inhibition improves PD-1 blockade immunotherapy

Introduction with rationale and aims for study Immune checkpoint blockade therapies have significantly altered the current landscape of cancer treatment. However, this immunotherapy still fails more often than it succeeds. There are now evidences that the lack of tumour infiltration by immune cells is the main mechanism of primary resistance to PD‐1 blockade therapies for cancer. It has been postulated that cancer cell‐intrinsic mechanisms may actively exclude T cells from tumours, suggesting that the finding of actionable molecules that could be inhibited to increase T cell infiltration may synergize with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. With the idea of finding potential drivers of immune exclusion, we performed RNA sequencing analysis of biopsies from melanoma patients and compared the transcriptomic differences of samples that where infiltrated with those that did not have immune infiltration. Methods RNAseq analysis of gene expressions on biopsies from melanoma patients treated with checkpoint blockade were analysed. We focused on the variable of "infiltration: yes or no,", e.g. tumors that were well infiltrated by immune cells with those that kept immune cells out. Sequencing revealed a list of genes whose expression differed between the infiltrated and noninfiltrated tumors. The kinase PAK4 stood out as a good candidate for inhibition treatment in the future as it was consistently enriched in the samples without immune infiltration. To test whether immunotherapy would work better if we deleted PAK4, we first knocked out PAK4, using CRISPR‐Cas9, in the ‐resistant melanoma cell line, B16. Then they injected the melanoma cells into mice and observed that PAK4 KO tumours now responded to PD‐1 blockade. In order to elucidate whether pharmacological inhibition of PAK4 could recapitulate the results observed in the B16 PAK4 KO tumours, we obtained the PAK4 inhibitor, KPT-9274, from Karyopharm Therapeutics. Indeed, inhibiting PAK4 in combination with anti‐PD‐1 immunotherapy significantly slowed the growth of the B16 melanomas more than either drug alone. Results and Conclusions Transcriptomic analysis of melanoma tumors that were well infiltrated by immune cells with those that kept immune cells out revealed a list of genes whose expression differed between the infiltrated and non-infiltrated tumours. The result suggests that p21 activated kinase 4 (PAK4) is enriched in non-responding tumour biopsies with low T cell and dendritic cell infiltration. In addition, PAK4 decreased WNT activity, a signalling pathway that has previously been involved in immune exclusion. In mouse models, genetic deletion of PAK4 increased T cell infiltration and reversed resistance to PD‐1 blockade in a CD8 T cell-dependent manner. Furthermore, combination of with the PAK4 inhibitor, KPT-9274, improved anti‐tumour responses compared to anti‐PD‐1 alone. Therefore, high PAK4 expression is correlated with low T cell and dendritic cell infiltration and lack of response to PD‐1 blockade, which could be reversed with PAK4 inhibition. The data establish a rationale for targeting this kinase with inhibitors in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients. Future work and data that we can anticipate for this study Oncogenic signalling pathways and specially the WNT signalling pathway, have been associated with lack of immune infiltration and resistance to PD‐1 blockade therapies. Here, we show that PAK4 overcome resistance to PD‐1 blockade while significantly decreases WNT signalling activity. Therefore, it constitutes the first potential druggable target that is able to reverse oncogenic driven immune cell exclusion. However, the fully mechanism whereby PAK4 sensitizes tumours to immunotherapy remains to be fully elucidated. It is necessary to address whether PAK4 inhibition overcomes resistance through WNT signalling inhibition or if other signalling pathways are involved in the observed phenotype.

Study phs001919

Genomic Characterization of Brain Metastases from Lung Cancer

Metastatic disease to the brain is associated with a poor prognosis. Our understanding of the genetic drivers of metastasis remain limited. Whole-exome sequencing was performed from brain metastases from lung adenocarcinoma to identify putative drivers of metastatic progression.

Study phs001920

Primary Prostate Tumor Tissue DNA Methylation Profiles

The study cohort includes 525 Caucasian and African American prostate cancer (PCa) patients who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) as primary therapy for clinically localized adenocarcinoma of the prostate. These patients were previously enrolled in one of two population-based studies: 1) men 40-64 years of age, diagnosed between January 1993 and December 1996; and, 2) men 35-74 years of age, diagnosed between January 2002 and December 2005. Gleason grade and sum, diagnostic PSA, and pathological tumor stage were obtained from the SEER cancer registry. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded prostate tumor tissue blocks were obtained from RP specimens and used to make hematoxalin and eosin stained slides, which were reviewed by pathologists to confirm the presence/location of adenocarcinoma. For each patient two 1-mm tumor tissue cores from the dominant lesion that were enriched with >=75% tumor cells were taken for DNA purification. The RecoverAll Total Nucleic Acid Isolation Kit (Ambion/Applied Biosciences, Austin, TX) was used to extract DNA, which was then quantified (PicoGreen), aliquoted onto 96-well plates and shipped to Illumina for DNA methylation profiling using the Infinium® HumanMethylation450 BeadChip.

Study phs001921

Case Study of Acquired Resistance to FGFR Inhibition in Cholangiocarcinoma using Targeted DNA and RNA Sequencing

Targeted sequencing was performed on blood, tumor, and cell free DNA samples from an FGFR2-fusion positive cholangiocarcinoma patient before and after treatment with an FGFR targeted therapy.

Study phs001924

National Institutes of Health H3Africa African Collaborative Center for Microbiome and Genomics Research (ACCME)

The African Collaborative Center for Microbiome and Genomics Research is a multi-institutional collaborative research project. The objectives of the project are to collaborate and implement high impact integrative epidemiology and genomics research into discovery of biomarkers associated with cervical carcinogenesis. Specifically ACCME links and leverages existing funded research and program activities at the collaborating institutions to study the interaction between vaginal microbiome, host genetic factors and molecular variants of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) to determine correlates of viral persistence in the causal pathway of cervical cancer, a major cause of preventable mortality in Nigeria and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This research offers several opportunities to advance understanding of cervical carcinogenesis, viral oncogenesis, new biomarker discovery and risk stratification by genotype in a cohort of African women. Sponsorship: This project is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Study phs001945

Count Me In (CMI): The Angiosarcoma (ASC) Project (CMI-ASCproject)

Count Me In - The Angiosarcoma Project: A Patient-Partnered Research Initiative to Accelerate Research in a Rare Sarcoma The Angiosarcoma Project (ASCproject) is a research study that directly engages angiosarcoma patients online and empowers them to accelerate cancer research by sharing medical information and clinical samples. Angiosarcoma is an exceedingly rare soft tissue sarcoma with an incidence of ~300 newly diagnosed cases per year in the United States. This low incidence has impeded large-scale research efforts in this disease that are strongly needed to catalyze research and improve clinical outcomes. The Angiosarcoma Project, launched in March 2017, has demonstrated the feasibility of directly engaging geographically dispersed patients to democratize research and establish a large patient cohort to characterize the genomic and clinical landscape of a rare disease. Angiosarcoma patients living in the US or Canada can access the study and consent online through an online portal (ASCproject.org). Enrolled patients are mailed saliva and blood draw kits, which can be used to extract germline DNA and cell-free DNA (cfDNA), respectively. The study team contacts participants' healthcare institutions to obtain medical records and a portion of archived tumor samples. All received tumor samples are subjected to centralized histological re-review by an expert pathologist to confirm a diagnosis of angiosarcoma. Whole exome sequencing is performed on tumor DNA, germline DNA, and cfDNA; transcriptome sequencing is performed on tumor RNA. De-identified data, including linked genomic, clinical, and patient-reported data, are shared via public databases on a recurring pre-publication basis. Participants are regularly provided updates on the study.

Study phs001931

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