Importance of DICER1 pathogenic variants in non-small cell lung cancer.

Abstract

e20602 Background: DICER1 encodes a miRNA processing enzyme involved in regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation. The role of DICER1 pathogenic variants (PVs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is relatively unknown. Germline and/or somatic PVs have been reported in pleuropulmonary blastoma, pulmonary blastoma (PB), and low-grade/well-differentiated fetal adenocarcinoma (WDFLAC), with clustering of somatic PVs at specific metal ion binding residues referred to as hotspot alterations. PVs in CTNNB1, resulting in constitutive activation of the WNT signaling pathway, have also been implicated in PB and WDFLAC. This study seeks to establish the frequency of somatic DICER1 hotspot PVs that occur in all NSCLCs, their co-occurrence with other PVs in DICER1 and with alterations of CTNNB1/WNT signaling, and their histologic correlates. Methods: Molecular sequencing data collected from 12,146 NSCLCs at Caris Life Sciences were queried for cases featuring somatic DICER1 variants. For those tumors harboring hotspot PVs, sequencing for CTNNB1 and APC mutations was performed, as well as histological review, including examination of beta-catenin immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Results: Of the 12,146 NSCLCs analyzed, 235 (1.9%) were found to have one or more DICER1 PVs. Of these 235, 225 cases demonstrated one variant, while 10 tumors featured two. Gene analysis revealed that 8 of the observed PVs cases contained hotspot alterations: 2 in the single variant cases and 6 in the double variant cases. The remaining 4 double variant cases harbored a combination of truncating, non-hotspot missense, or splice variants. No significant differences were observed for age or smoking status between DICER1 hotspot-positive and hotspot-negative groups. All but one tumor were considered to be in histologic spectrum of PB/WDFLAC. Of the 8 DICER1 hotspot-positive cases, 1 had a PV in APC, 4 had a CTNNB1 PV, 1 had a PV in both APC and CTNNB1, and 2 had neither. Beta-catenin IHC showed nuclear positivity in 5 tumors that had a PV in either CTNNB1 and/or APC.. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that DICER1 somatic hotspots select for morphologic features of tumor types such as PB and WDFLAC, but are not implicated in the most common forms of NSCLC. Furthermore, DICER1 hotspot-positive NSCLCs frequently harbor CTNNB1 and/or APC alterations, with many cases exhibiting nuclear staining by beta-catenin IHC, suggesting a possible synergistic relationship between DICER1 hotspot PVs and activation of the WNT signaling pathway in the formation of pulmonary tumors. These findings emphasize the importance of molecular testing in clinical practice such that detecting somatic DICER1 hotspot alterations aids in the diagnosis of rare lung cancers, which ultimately require special consideration with respect to disease severity and treatment.