Breast cancer is a disease of genomic alterations, of which the panorama of somatic mutations and how these relate to subtypes and therapy response is incompletely understood. Within SCAN-B (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02306096), a prospective study elucidating the transcriptomic profiles for thousands of breast cancers, we developed a RNA-seq pipeline for detection of SNVs/indels and profiled a real-world cohort of 3,217 breast tumors. We describe the mutational landscape of primary breast cancer viewed through the transcriptome of a large population-based cohort and relate it to patient survival. We demonstrate that RNA-seq can be used to call mutations in genes such as PIK3CA, TP53, and ERBB2, as well as the status of molecular pathways and mutational burden, and identify potentially druggable mutations in 86.8% of tumors. To make this rich dataset available for the research community, we developed an open source web application, the SCAN-B MutationExplorer (http://oncogenomics.bmc.lu.se/MutationExplorer). These results add another dimension to the use of RNA-seq as a clinical tool, where both gene expression-and mutation-based biomarkers can be interrogated in real-time within 1 week of tumor sampling.
Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα, encoded by ESR1) is a well-characterized transcription factor expressed in more than 75% of breast tumors and is the key biomarker to direct endocrine therapies. On the other hand, much less is known about estrogen receptor beta (ERβ, encoded by ESR2) and its importance in cancer. Previous studies had some disagreement, however most reports suggested a more favorable prognosis for patients with high ESR2 expression. To add further clarity to ESR2 in breast cancer, we interrogated a large population-based cohort of primary breast tumors (n = 3207) from the SCAN-B study. RNA-seq shows ESR2 is expressed at low levels overall with a slight inverse correlation to ESR1 expression (Spearman R = −0.18, p = 2.2e−16), and highest ESR2 expression in the basal- and normal-like PAM50 subtypes. ESR2-high tumors had favorable overall survival (p = 0.006), particularly in subgroups receiving endocrine therapy (p = 0.03) and in triple-negative breast cancer (p = 0.01). These results were generally robust in multivariable analyses accounting for patient age, tumor size, node status, and grade. Gene modules consistent with immune response were associated to ESR2-high tumors. Taken together, our results indicate that ESR2 is generally expressed at low levels in breast cancer but associated with improved overall survival and may be related to immune response modulation.
Background More than three-quarters of primary breast cancers are positive for estrogen receptor alpha (ER; encoded by the gene ESR1 ), the most important factor for directing anti-estrogenic endocrine therapy (ET). Recently, mutations in ESR1 were identified as acquired mechanisms of resistance to ET, found in 12% to 55% of metastatic breast cancers treated previously with ET. Methods We analyzed 3217 population-based invasive primary (nonmetastatic) breast cancers (within the SCAN-B study, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02306096), sampled from initial diagnosis prior to any treatment, for the presence of ESR1 mutations using RNA sequencing. Mutations were verified by droplet digital polymerase chain reaction on tumor and normal DNA. Patient outcomes were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier estimation and a series of 2-factor Cox regression multivariable analyses. Results We identified ESR1 resistance mutations in 30 tumors (0.9%), of which 29 were ER positive (1.1%). In ET-treated disease, presence of ESR1 mutation was associated with poor relapse-free survival and overall survival (2-sided log-rank test P < .001 and P = .008, respectively), with hazard ratios of 3.00 (95% confidence interval = 1.56 to 5.88) and 2.51 (95% confidence interval = 1.24 to 5.07), respectively, which remained statistically significant when adjusted for other prognostic factors. Conclusions These population-based results indicate that ESR1 mutations at diagnosis of primary breast cancer occur in about 1% of women and identify for the first time in the adjuvant setting that such preexisting mutations are associated to eventual resistance to standard hormone therapy. If replicated, tumor ESR1 screening should be considered in ER-positive primary breast cancer, and for patients with mutated disease, ER degraders such as fulvestrant or other therapeutic options may be considered as more appropriate.
Breast cancer is a disease of genomic alterations, of which the complete panorama of somatic mutations and how these relate to molecular subtypes and therapy response is incompletely understood. Within the Sweden Cancerome Analysis Network-Breast project (SCAN-B; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02306096), an ongoing study elucidating the tumor transcriptomic profiles for thousands of breast cancers prospectively, we developed an optimized pipeline for detection of single nucleotide variants and small insertions and deletions from RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data, and profiled a large real-world population-based cohort of 3,217 breast tumors. We use it to describe the mutational landscape of primary breast cancer viewed through the transcriptome of a large population-based cohort of patients, and relate it to patient overall survival. We demonstrate that RNA-seq can be used to call mutations in important breast cancer genes such as PIK3CA, TP53, and ERBB2, as well as the status of key molecular pathways and tumor mutational burden, and identify potentially druggable genes in 86.8% percent of tumors. To make this rich and growing mutational portraiture of breast cancer available for the wider research community, we developed an open source web-based application, the SCAN-B MutationExplorer, accessible at http://oncogenomics.bmc.lu.se/MutationExplorer. These results add another dimension to the use of RNA-seq as a potential clinical tool, where both gene expression-based and gene mutation-based biomarkers can be interrogated simultaneously and in real-time within one week of tumor sampling. and sampling of tissue for this study. We also thank the Swedish National Breast Cancer Registry and Regional Cancer Center South for clinical data. The SweGen allele frequency data was generated
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