The landscape of RET alterations from 56,970 adult patients with cancer: Clinical implications.

Abstract

3106 Background: Activating receptor-tyrosine kinase rearranged during transfection ( RET) mutations and fusions have been recognized as potent drivers of oncogenesis. Recent identification of highly potent and selective RET inhibitors holds great promise in the management of RET-dependent tumors. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of RET alterations in pan-cancer adult malignancies. Methods: We analyzed 59,347 samples from 56,970 patients available from AACR Project GENIE (Cancer Discov. 2017) database for the prevalence of RET fusions, mutations, and copy number alterations in diverse cancer types. Results: A total of 1414 RET alterations were detected, including 91 fusions (6.4%), 1166 missense mutations (82.5%), 136 truncating mutations (9.6%), and 21 in-frame mutations (1.5%). RET fusions were observed in 0.15% of tumor samples and were most commonly identified in non-small cell lung cancer, thyroid cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and gastric cancer (62.6%, 18.6%, 5.5%, 4.4%, 3.3% of identified RET fusions, respectively). RET fusions were significantly co-altered with MAPK3/ERK1 (p=0.045), SETD2 (p=1.36E-07 ), and EIF4E (p=0.045), while there was a negative association between RET fusions and EGFR (p=0.009634) , TP53 (p=0.02267), and KRAS (p=2.53E-05) alterations. Most common RET gene upstream partners were KIF5B, CCDC6, and NCOA4 (42.9%, 24.2%, 7.7% of identified RET fusions, respectively). RET missense mutations were found in 2.0% of tumor samples; 136 (11.7%) of identified missense mutations, including 8 RET gatekeeper V804M/L mutations, were characterized as likely oncogenic, 12 (1.0%) as likely benign, and 1018 (87.3%) as variants of unknown significance using OncoKB database. RET amplifications occurred in 1.5% of tested samples. Conclusions: While RET fusions represent extremely rare events in multiple cancers, RET missense mutations occur in 2% of malignancies. Most RET missense variants are described as variants of unknown significance, limiting the impact of precision oncology for the majority of patients with RET alterations. Further functional characterization of RET variants is warranted. MAPK pathway co-alterations in patents with RET fusions may present a strategy for future therapeutic combinations.