Faculty Collaboration Database

Targetable kinase gene fusions in high-risk B-ALL: a study from the Children's Oncology Group. Blood 2017 Jun 22;129(25):3352-3361

Date

04/15/2017

Pubmed ID

28408464

Pubmed Central ID

PMC5482101

DOI

10.1182/blood-2016-12-758979

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85021677684 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   209 Citations

Abstract

Philadelphia chromosome-like (Ph-like) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a high-risk subtype characterized by genomic alterations that activate cytokine receptor and kinase signaling. We examined the frequency and spectrum of targetable genetic lesions in a retrospective cohort of 1389 consecutively diagnosed patients with childhood B-lineage ALL with high-risk clinical features and/or elevated minimal residual disease at the end of remission induction therapy. The Ph-like gene expression profile was identified in 341 of 1389 patients, 57 of whom were excluded from additional analyses because of the presence of BCR-ABL1 (n = 46) or ETV6-RUNX1 (n = 11). Among the remaining 284 patients (20.4%), overexpression and rearrangement of CRLF2 (IGH-CRLF2 or P2RY8-CRLF2) were identified in 124 (43.7%), with concomitant genomic alterations activating the JAK-STAT pathway (JAK1, JAK2, IL7R) identified in 63 patients (50.8% of those with CRLF2 rearrangement). Among the remaining patients, using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction or transcriptome sequencing, we identified targetable ABL-class fusions (ABL1, ABL2, CSF1R, and PDGFRB) in 14.1%, EPOR rearrangements or JAK2 fusions in 8.8%, alterations activating other JAK-STAT signaling genes (IL7R, SH2B3, JAK1) in 6.3% or other kinases (FLT3, NTRK3, LYN) in 4.6%, and mutations involving the Ras pathway (KRAS, NRAS, NF1, PTPN11) in 6% of those with Ph-like ALL. We identified 8 new rearrangement partners for 4 kinase genes previously reported to be rearranged in Ph-like ALL. The current findings provide support for the precision-medicine testing and treatment approach for Ph-like ALL implemented in Children's Oncology Group ALL trials.

Author List

Reshmi SC, Harvey RC, Roberts KG, Stonerock E, Smith A, Jenkins H, Chen IM, Valentine M, Liu Y, Li Y, Shao Y, Easton J, Payne-Turner D, Gu Z, Tran TH, Nguyen JV, Devidas M, Dai Y, Heerema NA, Carroll AJ 3rd, Raetz EA, Borowitz MJ, Wood BL, Angiolillo AL, Burke MJ, Salzer WL, Zweidler-McKay PA, Rabin KR, Carroll WL, Zhang J, Loh ML, Mullighan CG, Willman CL, Gastier-Foster JM, Hunger SP

Author

Michael James Burke MD Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Child
Female
Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl
Gene Expression Regulation, Leukemic
Gene Fusion
Humans
Interleukin-7 Receptor alpha Subunit
Janus Kinase 2
Male
Mutation
Philadelphia Chromosome
Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
Protein Kinases
Receptors, Cytokine
Retrospective Studies
Transcriptome