Pan-Cancer analysis of the mutation frequency of genes in TGF-beta pathway.

Abstract

e15113 Background: The TGF-β signaling pathway governs key cellular processes under physiologic conditions and deregulates in cancer, including a diverse and varied set of gene responses that range from cytostatic and apoptotic tumor-suppressive ones in early-stage tumors to proliferative, invasive, angiogenic, and oncogenic ones in advanced cancer. However, the genomics profiles of TGF-β signaling pathway genes are unclear. In this study, we evaluated the genomic features in Chinese pan-cancer patients and investigated the mutation frequency of genes in the TGF-β pathway. Methods: A total of 5420 patients consisting of 22 cancer types were enrolled in this study. Utilizing target next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform, genomic profiling of 599 cancer-related genes, including genes of TGF-β pathway (SMAD2/3/4, PDGFRB, CDH1, MDM2, CDKN1A, and CDKN2B), was performed on tumor tissue or blood samples. Results: We observed 25.57% (1386/5420) of cases harbored at least one alteration in the TGF-β pathway genes. The mutation frequency ranges 9.09% to 39.77% among the 22 cancer types, including 39.77% (247/621) in gastric cancer, 39.31 (320/814) in bowel cancer, 36.84% (7/19) in endometrial cancer, 11.11% (8/72) in esophageal cancer, 10.46% (7/67) in kidney cancer, and 9.09% (2/22) in the gastrointestinal stromal tumor, respectively. The mutation of tumor-promoting effects genes SMAD2/3/4, PDGFRB, CDH1and MDM2 in the TGF-β pathway were found in all cancer types and mainly occurred in CNS tumor, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, pancreatic cancer, sarcoma, gastric cancer, and bowel cancer. The tumor-suppressing effective genes CDKN1A and CDKN2B primarily mutated in melanoma, endometrial cancer, and kidney cancer. Approximately 21.77% of patients had CNV in the TGF-β pathway of all tumor types. The most frequently mutated TGF-β genes were MDM2 and CDKN2B, mainly altered in sarcoma, melanoma, and CNS Tumor. Conclusions: We found a unique genomic feature of the TGF-β pathway of Chinese pan-cancer patients. Targeting mutant of TGF-β pathway genes remains a potentially effective treatment in the future.