BackgroundAbout 10–15% of adult, and most pediatric, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) lack mutations in KIT, PDGFRA, SDHx, or RAS pathway components (KRAS, BRAF, NF1). The identification of additional mutated genes in this rare subset of tumors can have important clinical benefit to identify altered biological pathways and select targeted therapies.MethodsWe performed comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) for coding regions in more than 300 cancer-related genes of 186 GISTs to assess for their somatic alterations.ResultsWe identified 24 GIST lacking alterations in the canonical KIT/PDGFRA/RAS pathways, including 12 without SDHx alterations. These 24 patients were mostly adults (96%). The tumors had a 46% rate of nodal metastases. These 24 GIST were more commonly mutated at 7 genes: ARID1B, ATR, FGFR1, LTK, SUFU, PARK2 and ZNF217. Two tumors harbored FGFR1 gene fusions (FGFR1–HOOK3, FGFR1–TACC1) and one harbored an ETV6–NTRK3 fusion that responded to TRK inhibition. In an independent sample set, we identified 5 GIST cases lacking alterations in the KIT/PDGFRA/SDHx/RAS pathways, including two additional cases with FGFR1–TACC1 and ETV6–NTRK3 fusions.ConclusionsUsing patient demographics, tumor characteristics, and CGP, we show that GIST lacking alterations in canonical genes occur in younger patients, frequently metastasize to lymph nodes, and most contain deleterious genomic alterations, including gene fusions involving FGFR1 and NTRK3. If confirmed in larger series, routine testing for these translocations may be indicated for this subset of GIST. Moreover, these findings can be used to guide personalized treatments for patients with GIST. Trial registration NCT 02576431. Registered October 12, 2015Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-016-1075-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

By virtue of their large number, widespread distribution and important roles in cell physiology and biochemistry, G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) play multiple important roles in clinical medicine. Here, we focus on 3 areas that subsume much of the recent work in this aspect of GPCR biology: (1) monogenic diseases of GPCR; (2) genetic variants of GPCR; and (3) clinically useful pharmacological agonists and antagonists of GPCR. Diseases involving mutations of GPCR are rare, occurring in <1/1000 people, but disorders in which antibodies are directed against GPCR are more common. Genetic variants, especially single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), show substantial heterogeneity in frequency among different GPCRs but have not been evaluated for some GPCR. Many therapeutic agonists and antagonists target GPCR and show inter-subject variability in terms of efficacy and toxicity. For most of those agents, it remains an open question whether genetic variation in primary sequence of the GPCR is an important contributor to such inter-subject variability, although this is an active area of investigation.

A growing body of data indicates that multiple signal transduction events in the heart occur via plasma membrane receptors located in signaling microdomains. Lipid rafts, enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids, form one such microdomain along with a subset of lipid rafts, caveolae, enriched in the protein caveolin. In the heart, a key caveolin is caveolin-3, whose scaffolding domain is thought to serve as an anchor for other proteins. In spite of the original morphologic definition of caveolae ("little caves"), most work related to their role in compartmenting signal transduction molecules has involved subcellular fractionation or immunoprecipitation with anti-caveolin antibodies. Use of such approaches has documented that several G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR), and their cognate heterotrimeric G proteins and effectors, localize to lipid rafts/caveolae in neonatal cardiac myocytes. Our recent findings support the view that adult cardiac myocytes appear to have different patterns of localization of such components compared to neonatal myocytes and cardiac fibroblasts. Such results imply the existence of multiple subcellular microdomains for GPCR-mediated signal transduction in cardiac myocytes, in particular adult myocytes, and raise a major unanswered question: what are the precise mechanism(s) that determine co-localization of GPCR and post-receptor components with lipid rafts/caveolae in cardiac myocytes and other cell types?

Purpose Most gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are considered non-hereditary or sporadic. However, single-institution studies suggest that GIST patients develop additional malignancies with increased frequencies. We hypothesized that we could gain greater insight into possible associations between GIST and other malignancies using a national cancer database inquiry. Methods Patients diagnosed with GIST (2001–2011) in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database were included. Standardized prevalence ratios (SPRs) and standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were used to quantify cancer risks incurred by GIST patients before and after GIST diagnoses, respectively, when compared with the general U.S. population. Results Of 6,112 GIST patients, 1,047 (17.1%) had additional cancers. There were significant increases in overall cancer rates: 44% (SPR=1.44) before diagnosis and 66% (SIR=1.66) after GIST diagnoses. Malignancies with significantly increased occurrence both before/after diagnoses included other sarcomas (SPR=5.24/SIR=4.02), neuroendocrine-carcinoid tumors (SPR=3.56/SIR=4.79), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (SPR=1.69/SIR=1.76), and colorectal adenocarcinoma (SPR=1.51/SIR=2.16). Esophageal adenocarcinoma (SPR=12.0), bladder adenocarcinoma (SPR=7.51), melanoma (SPR=1.46), and prostate adenocarcinoma (SPR=1.20) were significantly more common only before GIST. Ovarian carcinoma (SIR=8.72), small intestine adenocarcinoma (SIR=5.89), papillary thyroid cancer (SIR=5.16), renal cell carcinoma (SIR=4.46), hepatobiliary adenocarcinomas (SIR=3.10), gastric adenocarcinoma (SIR=2.70), pancreatic adenocarcinoma (SIR=2.03), uterine adenocarcinoma (SIR=1.96), non-small cell lung cancer (SIR=1.74), and transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder (SIR=1.65) were significantly more common only after GIST. Conclusion This is the first population-based study to characterize the associations and temporal relationships between GIST and other cancers, both by site and histological type. These associations may carry important clinical implications for future cancer screening and treatment strategies.