Determining the cancer type and molecular subtype has important clinical implications. The primary site is however unknown for some malignancies discovered in the metastatic stage. Moreover liquid biopsies may be used to screen for tumoral DNA, which upon detection needs to be assigned to a site-of-origin. Classifiers based on genomic features are a promising approach to prioritize the tumor anatomical site, type and subtype. We examined the predictive ability of causal (driver) somatic mutations in this task, comparing it against global patterns of non-selected (passenger) mutations, including features based on regional mutation density (RMD). In the task of distinguishing 18 cancer types, the driver mutations–mutated oncogenes or tumor suppressors, pathways and hotspots–classified 36% of the patients to the correct cancer type. In contrast, the features based on passenger mutations did so at 92% accuracy, with similar contribution from the RMD and the trinucleotide mutation spectra. The RMD and the spectra covered distinct sets of patients with predictions. In particular, introducing the RMD features into a combined classification model increased the fraction of diagnosed patients by 50 percentage points (at 20% FDR). Furthermore, RMD was able to discriminate molecular subtypes and/or anatomical site of six major cancers. The advantage of passenger mutations was upheld under high rates of false negative mutation calls and with exome sequencing, even though overall accuracy decreased. We suggest whole genome sequencing is valuable for classifying tumors because it captures global patterns emanating from mutational processes, which are informative of the underlying tumor biology.
Genomic analyses have revealed mutational footprints associated with DNA maintenance gone awry, or with mutagen exposures. Because cancer therapeutics often target DNA synthesis or repair, we asked if mutational signatures make useful markers of drug sensitivity. We detect mutational signatures in cancer cell line exomes (where matched healthy tissues are not available) by adjusting for the confounding germline mutation spectra across ancestries. We identify robust associations between various mutational signatures and drug activity across cancer cell lines; these are as numerous as associations with established genetic markers such as driver gene alterations. Signatures of prior exposures to DNA damaging agents – including chemotherapy – tend to associate with drug resistance, while signatures of deficiencies in DNA repair tend to predict sensitivity towards particular therapeutics. Replication analyses across independent drug and CRISPR genetic screening data sets reveal hundreds of robust associations, which are provided as a resource for drug repurposing guided by mutational signature markers.
Analysis of cancer mutagenic signatures provides information about the origin of mutations and can inform the use of clinical therapies, including immunotherapy. In particular, APOBEC3A (A3A) has emerged as a major driver of mutagenesis in cancer cells, and its expression results in DNA damage and susceptibility to treatment with inhibitors of the ATR and CHK1 checkpoint kinases. Here, we report the implementation of CRISPR/Cas-9 genetic screening to identify susceptibilities of multiple A3A-expressing lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cell lines. We identify HMCES, a protein recently linked to the protection of abasic sites, as a central protein for the tolerance of A3A expression. HMCES depletion results in synthetic lethality with A3A expression preferentially in a TP53-mutant background. Analysis of previous screening data reveals a strong association between A3A mutational signatures and sensitivity to HMCES loss and indicates that HMCES is specialized in protecting against a narrow spectrum of DNA damaging agents in addition to A3A. We experimentally show that both HMCES disruption and A3A expression increase susceptibility of cancer cells to ionizing radiation (IR), oxidative stress, and ATR inhibition, strategies that are often applied in tumor therapies. Overall, our results suggest that HMCES is an attractive target for selective treatment of A3A-expressing tumors.
Genomic analyses have revealed mutational signatures that are associated with DNA maintenance gone awry, a common occurrence in tumors. Because cancer therapeutics often target synthesis of DNA building blocks, DNA replication or DNA repair, we hypothesized that mutational signatures would make useful markers of drug sensitivity. We rigorously tested this hypothesis by a global analysis of various drug screening and genetic screening data sets, derived from cancer cell line panels. We introduce a novel computational method that detects mutational signatures in cell lines by stringently adjusting for the confounding germline mutational processes, which are difficult to remove when healthy samples from the same individuals are not available. This revealed many associations between diverse mutational signatures and drug activity in cancer cell lines, which are comparably or more numerous than associations with classical genetic features such as cancer driver mutations or copy number alterations. Validation across independent drug screening data and across genetic screens involving drug target genes revealed hundreds of robustly supported associations, which are provided as a resource for drug repurposing guided by mutational signature markers. We suggest that cancer cells bearing genomic signatures of deficiencies in certain DNA repair pathways may be vulnerable to particular types of therapeutics, such as epigenetic drugs.
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