Cell-of-Origin Patterns Dominate the Molecular Classification of 10,000 Tumors from 33 Types of Cancer

Cancers progress when the immune system fails to identify and eliminate malignant cells. Recognition of this, combined with advances in tumor immunology, has allowed development of therapies that induce effective anti-tumor immune responses. For incompletely-understood reasons, effective responses to immunotherapy occur in some patients and not others. Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) are a common cancer type that can be divided into two subsets based on human papillomavirus (HPV) status. HPV status is a strong predictor of positive clinical outcome. Expression of exogenous viral antigens by HPV+, but not HPV-, HNSCC allows direct comparison of the immune status (immune cell presence and characteristics) between these two otherwise anatomically-similar tumors. Using TCGA data, we compared the immune landscape between HPV+ and HPV- treatment-naïve HNSCC. As compared to HPV- samples, HPV+ HNSCC exhibited a strong Th1 response characterized by increased infiltration with multiple types of immune cells and expression of their effector molecules. HPV+ HNSCC also expressed higher levels of CD39 and multiple T-cell exhaustion markers including LAG3, PD1, TIGIT, and TIM3 compared to HPV- HNSCC. Importantly, patients with higher expression of these exhaustion markers–indicative of a T-cell-inflamed tumor–correlated with markedly improved survival in HPV+, but not HPV-, HNSCC. Thus, profound differences exist between the immune landscape of HPV+ and HPV- HNSCC. These results suggest that immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy is a promising treatment strategy for HPV+ HNSCC, and that expression of immune checkpoint molecules could serve as a predictive biomarker of patient outcome in HPV+ HNSCC.

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“…19 However, no significant differences were detected between the overall leukocyte fraction of HPV+ versus HPV- HNSCC (Supplementary Figure 1).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Treatment-naïve HPV+ head and neck cancers display a T-cell-inflamed phenotype distinct from their HPV- counterparts that has implications for immunotherapy

et al. 2018

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“…SARCs have a high overall mutation rate, similar to those of conventional UC, melanoma, and non-small-cell lung cancers (Hoadley et al, 2018). Our findings show that in SARC, these high mutation rates are associated with mutation signature 1 and that SARCs can be separated into two subgroups (i.e., one with and one without mutation signatures of an endogenous mutagenic enzyme, APOBEC cytidine deaminase).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dysregulation of EMT Drives the Progression to Clinically Aggressive Sarcomatoid Bladder Cancer

et al. 2019

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SUMMARY Sarcomatoid urothelial bladder cancer (SARC) displays a high propensity for distant metastasis and is associated with short survival. We report a comprehensive genomic analysis of 28 cases of SARC and 84 cases of conventional urothelial carcinoma (UC), with the TCGA cohort of 408 muscle- invasive bladder cancers serving as the reference. SARCs show a distinct mutational landscape, with enrichment of TP53, RB1, and PIK3CA mutations. They are related to the basal molecular subtype of conventional UCs and could be divided into epithelial-basal and more clinically aggressive mesenchymal subsets on the basis of TP63 and its target gene expression levels. Other analyses reveal that SARCs are driven by downregulation of homotypic adherence genes and dysregulation of the EMT network, and nearly half exhibit a heavily infiltrated immune phenotype. Our observations have important implications for prognostication and the development of more effective therapies for this highly lethal variant of bladder cancer.

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“…Pan-cancer efforts by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and others have shown that cancers originating from different tissues share similar genomic signatures (Bailey et al, 2018; Hoadley et al, 2018). Certain breast and bladder cancers display a basal-like molecular profile characterized by p63 activation and the expression of specific basal cell cytokeratins (Damrauer et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Human Adult Stem Cell Signature Marks Aggressive Variants across Epithelial Cancers

et al. 2018

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Cancer progression to an aggressive phenotype often co-opts aspects of stem cell biology. Here, we developed gene signatures for normal human stem cell populations to understand the relationship between epithelial cancers and stem cell transcriptional programs. Using a pan-cancer approach, we reveal that aggressive epithelial cancers are enriched for a transcriptional signature shared by epithelial adult stem cells. The adult stem cell signature selected for epithelial cancers with worse overall survival and alterations of oncogenic drivers. Lethal small cell neuroendocrine lung, prostate, and bladder cancers transcriptionally converged onto the adult stem cell signature and not other stem cell signatures tested. We found that DNA methyltransferase expression correlated with adult stem cell signature status and was enriched in small cell neuroendocrine cancers. DNA methylation analysis uncovered a shared epigenomic profile between small cell neuroendocrine cancers. These pan-cancer findings establish a molecular link between human adult stem cells and aggressive epithelial cancers.

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Cell-of-Origin Patterns Dominate the Molecular Classification of 10,000 Tumors from 33 Types of Cancer

Cited by 1,896 publications

References 52 publications

Treatment-naïve HPV+ head and neck cancers display a T-cell-inflamed phenotype distinct from their HPV- counterparts that has implications for immunotherapy

Treatment-naïve HPV+ head and neck cancers display a T-cell-inflamed phenotype distinct from their HPV- counterparts that has implications for immunotherapy

Dysregulation of EMT Drives the Progression to Clinically Aggressive Sarcomatoid Bladder Cancer

A Human Adult Stem Cell Signature Marks Aggressive Variants across Epithelial Cancers

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