Whole-Exome Sequencing Characterizes the Landscape of Somatic Mutations and Copy Number Alterations in Adrenocortical Carcinoma
C. Christofer Juhlin, Gerald Goh, James M. Healy, Annabelle L. Fonseca, Ute I. Scholl, Adam Stenman, John W. Kunstman, Taylor C. Brown, John D. Overton, Shrikant M. Mane, Carol Nelson-Williams, Martin Bäckdahl, Anna-Carinna Suttorp, Matthias Haase, Murim Choi, Joseph Schlessinger,
David L. Rimm, Anders Höög, Manju L. Prasad, Reju Korah, Catharina Larsson, Richard P. Lifton, and Tobias Carling
Context: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and lethal malignancy with a poorly defined etiology, and the molecular genetics of ACC are incompletely understood.
Objective: To utilize whole-exome sequencing for genetic characterization of the underlying so- matic mutations and copy number alterations present in ACC.
Design: Screening for somatic mutation events and copy number alterations (CNAs) was per- formed by comparative analysis of tumors and matched normal samples from 41 patients with ACC.
Results: In total, 966 nonsynonymous somatic mutations were detected, including 40 tumors with a mean of 16 mutations per sample and one tumor with 314 mutations. Somatic mutations in ACC-associated genes included TP53 (8/41 tumors, 19.5%) and CTNNB1 (4/41, 9.8%). Genes with potential disease-causing mutations included GNAS, NF2, and RB1, and recurrently mu- tated genes with unknown roles in tumorigenesis comprised CDC27, SCN7A, and SDK1. Re- current CNAs included amplification at 5p15.33 including TERT (6/41, 14.6%) and homozygous deletion at 22q12.1 including the Wnt repressors ZNRF3 and KREMEN1 (4/41 9.8% and 3/41, 7.3%, respectively). Somatic mutations in ACC-established genes and recurrent ZNRF3 and TERT loci CNAs were mutually exclusive in the majority of cases. Moreover, gene ontology identified Wnt signaling as the most frequently mutated pathway in ACCs.
Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of Wnt pathway dysregulation in ACC and corroborate the finding of homozygous deletion of Wnt repressors ZNRF3 and KREMEN1. Overall, mutations in either TP53 or CTNNB1 as well as focal CNAs at the ZNRF3 or TERT loci denote mutually exclusive events, suggesting separate mechanisms underlying the development of these tumors. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 100: E493-E502, 2015)
A drenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and highly aggressive disease, with a reported annual incidence of 0.5-2.0 cases per million (1). ACC can be part of rare hereditary syndromes including Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), but most cases of ACC are sporadic (1). The median age of diagnosis in the adult population is between 46 and 55 years, and
women are more often affected (2). The 5-year survival rate for patients with ACC is 16-38% (3). Patients with ACC typically present because of hormone excess (40- 60%) or due to loco-regional symptoms in cases with large tumors (2). As such, ACC is usually diagnosed with an endocrine workup along with cross-sectional imaging. The histopathological diagnosis of adrenal tumors re-
* C.C.J., G.G., and J.M.H. contributed equally to the study. Abbreviations: ACC, adrenocortical carcinoma; CNA, copy number alteration; COSMIC, Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer; DAPPLE, Disease Association Protein-Protein Link Evaluator; ENSAT, European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors; GISTIC, Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in Cancer; LFS, Li-Fraumeni syndrome; LOH, loss of heterozygosity; SNV, single nucleotide variant.
mains challenging, and the Weiss system that is most com- monly used in assessment is subject to high interobserver variability (4).
The genetics underlying sporadic ACC are not clearly understood. Previously, somatic alterations of TP53 have been described in 16-33% of all ACCs (5, 6), and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at 17p13, where TP53 is located, is frequent (up to 85%) in ACCs (6). Furthermore, ACC is prevalent among individuals with LFS, caused by germline mutations in TP53. The Wnt/ß-catenin pathway is known to be important in adrenal cortex development (7), and activating mutations in CTNNB1 have been identified in both adrenocortical adenomas and ACC (5, 7). Activating mutations in exon 3 (including S45 and T41) of ß-catenin (CTNNB1) have been identified in 22-27% of ACAs and 16-31% of ACCs (8-10); however, abnormal cytoplas- mic and/or nuclear ß-catenin expression has been demon- strated in 30-85% of ACC specimens (8, 10). Further- more, recurrent C228T TERT promoter mutations were recently reported in subsets of ACCs (11).
Studies of copy number alterations (CNAs) in ACC have identified large amplifications across chromosomes 5, 7, 12, 16q, and 20, and large deletions across chromo- somes 1, 3p, 10q, 11, 14q, 15q, 17, and 22q (12). A recent study of ACC identified similar CNAs, and also high- lighted deletions of ZNRF3 and amplifications of TERT as common events (5). Using whole-exome sequencing, the current study demonstrates recurrent homozygous de- letions of ZNRF3 and KREMEN1, TERT amplifications, and confirmed TP53 and CTNNB1 as the most recur- rently mutated genes across the ACC exome.
Materials and Methods
Cases and samples
In total, 41 matched pairs of ACCs and nontumor samples were included from three different institutions (Table 1, Supple- mental Table 1). Following approval by the Yale University In- stitutional Review Board, and after obtaining written informed consent from patients, sporadic cases of histologically confirmed ACC were included in the study. Samples were selected from archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue from Yale Pa- thology Tissue Services. Two additional cohorts of sporadic ACC were obtained from Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden (frozen tissue), and Düsseldorf, Germany (formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue) following ethical ap- proval for genetic studies from local ethics committees. All spec-
| Characteristic | No. of Cases | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Total number | n = 41 | |
| Age, y, mean (range) | 52.9 (13-77) | – |
| Sex | ||
| Male | 15 | 36.6% |
| Female | 26 | 63.4% |
| Cohort | ||
| Yale | 19 | 46.3% |
| Karolinska | 14 | 34.1% |
| Dusseldorf | 8 | 19.5% |
| Ethnicity | ||
| Caucasian | 37 | 90.2% |
| Black | 2 | 4.9% |
| Hispanic | 2 | 4.9% |
| ENSAT 2008 stage | ||
| I | 1 | 2.4% |
| II | 16 | 39.0% |
| III | 13 | 31.7% |
| IV | 11 | 26.8% |
| Tumor diameter, cm, mean | 11 (2.8-21.0) | – |
| (range) | ||
| Metastatic at presentation | 11 | 26.8% |
| Outcomes | ||
| Alive, no recurrence | 10 | 24.4% |
| Alive, recurrent | 6 | 14.6% |
| Death from recurrence | 18 | 43.9% |
| Death, cause unknown | 3 | 7.3% |
| or other | ||
| Lost to followup/current | 4 | 9.8% |
| status unknown | ||
| Hormonal hypersecretion | ||
| Nonhyperfunctional | 14 | 34.1% |
| Cortisol producing | 12 | 29.3% |
| Androgen producing | 5 | 12.2% |
| Cortisol and aldosterone | 3 | 7.3% |
| Cortisol and androgen | 2 | 4.9% |
| Aldosterone producing | 2 | 4.9% |
| 17-OH progesterone | 1 | 2.4% |
| No information available | 2 | 4.9% |
Abbreviation: ENSAT, European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors.
imens were examined by experienced endocrine pathologists be- fore nucleic acid extraction. None of the included patients were exposed to neoadjuvant treatment (chemotherapy or radiation) prior to surgical excision of their primary tumor.
Exome capture, massively parallel sequencing, and analysis
Genomic DNA samples generating adequate high-quality li- braries were subjected to exome capture and sequencing as pre- viously described (13), and the complete methodology regarding
Yale Endocrine Neoplasia Laboratory (C.C.J., J.M.H., A.L.F., J.W.K., T.C.B., R.K., T.C.), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; Department of Surgery (C.C.J., J.M.H., A.L.F., J.W.K., T.C.B., R.K., T.C.), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520; Department of Genetics (G.G., C.N.W., M.C., R.P.L.), Yale School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520; Department of Oncology-Pathology (C.C.J., A.S., A.H., C.L.), Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, CCK, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden; Yale Center for Genome Analysis (JDO, SMM), Orange, Connecticut, 06477; Department of Pathology (D.L.R., M.L.P.), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520; Department of Pharmacology (J.S.), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery (M.B.), Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden; Division of Nephrology (U.I.S.), University Hospital Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany; Department of Pathology (A.C.S.), University Hospital Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany; and Division of Endocrinology and Diabetology (M.H.), University Hospital Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
whole-exome sequencing, copy number alteration (CNA) anal- ysis, sequence validation, ontology analyses, statistics, and ex- pressional analyses are detailed in the Supplemental Materials and Methods.
Results
Study cohort
This study included 41 patients with ACC (Table 1, Supplemental Table 1). These samples were obtained from 15 males and 26 females with a mean age at diagnosis of 52.9 years (range, 13-77 y). According to the staging of the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors (ENSAT), one patient (2.4%) presented with stage I, 16 patients (39.0%) with stage II, 13 patients (31.7%) with stage III, and 11 patients (26.8%) with stage IV tumors. Tumors exhibited a mean size of 11 cm (range, 2.8-21 cm). In total, 25 of the tumors (61.0%) produced an excess of one or more hormones, with 17 of these (68.0%) being cortisol-hypersecreting (cortisol alone [n = 12]) or com- bined with aldosterone/androgens (n = 5).
Whole-exome sequencing
Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA from 41 tumors along with matched normal DNA, and all tumor/normal pairs were successfully matched by the ex- ome analysis. Each targeted base in tumor and normal samples was sequenced an average of 243-fold and 124- fold, respectively (Supplemental Table 2); more than 90% of the targeted bases were covered with at least 20 reads. Mean tumor purity for all cases where this information was available was 62% (range, 27-92%; Supplemental Table 2).
Somatic mutations were called based on significant in- creases in nonreference alleles present in the tumor, com- pared with the matched normal sample. The results iden- tified an average of 23.6 protein-altering and 7.6 silent somatic mutations per tumor. The mean somatic mutation rate per base was 1.19 × 10-6. Overall, 966 nonsynony- mous single nucleotide variants (SNVs) were identified (Supplemental Table 3). An overview of the whole-exome sequencing results (Figure 1A) and the algorithm-gener- ated arm-length copy number alterations (Figure 1B) are shown in Figure 1. Each gene with a nonsynonymous SNV was reviewed against known mutations identified in prior studies and subjected to MutSig analysis (14).
Adrenocortical carcinoma with hypermutator phenotype
One tumor, sample 545, exhibited a significantly higher number of SNVs compared with others (314 SNVs com- pared with an average of 16 SNVs in the other 40 samples;
range, 1-80; P = 1.07 × 10-8, x2). The tumor harbored somatic mutations in MSH6 (Glu288*) and POLE (Arg742His), genes previously associated with hypermu- tator phenotypes (15, 16) (Supplemental Table 3). How- ever, the sample did not have markedly aberrant patterns of CNA. Because of the skewing effect of the large number of mutations in this tumor, it was excluded from subse- quent statistical analyses of mutation burden. Genes of interest distributed among the samples were selected to undergo Sanger sequencing to validate identified muta- tions. Of the selections that were able to generate adequate sequence, 54 of 55 somatic mutations were confirmed present (98%).
ACC-related gene mutations
Among the somatic coding mutations in the remaining 40 matched tumor-normal pairs excluding the hyper- mutator case 545, only one gene, CTNNB1, encoding ß-catenin, had a recurrent mutation (Thr41Ala) observed in two tumors (Table 2, Supplemental Table 3). This is a known gain of function mutation in exon 3 of CTNNB1 (9). Two additional tumors had somatic mutations in CTNNB1: Ser45Pro, also in exon 3 and known to be an activating mutation (9), and Leu513Phe, which is located in the ARM9 (armadillo repeat 9) domain of ß-catenin. The Leu513Phe variant has not been described previ- ously as a Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) mutation and the pathogenicity remains un- known. However, the leucine at this position is highly conserved among species, and damage prediction analysis using PolyPhen2 version 2.2.2 (http://genetics.bwh. harvard.edu/pph2/index.shtml) suggests the mutation is “probably damaging” with a score of 1.000. Collectively, CTNNB1 mutations were observed in 4/40 (10%) of the ACCs studied (Table 2).
To determine which genes had more somatic mutations than expected by chance, MutSigCV (14) was applied. Only one gene, TP53, was identified as significantly mu- tated (q-value = 7.68 × 10-2). Eight somatic mutations in TP53 were identified in 7/40 tumors (17.5%), all of which were protein altering and in regions of LOH, and 6/8 had read distributions consistent with homozygous variants, whereas 2/8 seemed to be subclonal (Table 2, Supplemen- tal Table 4). A TP53 mutation was also identified in the hypermutator sample, for a total of 8/41 (19.5%). A germ- line mutation in TP53 (Arg156His) was identified in one patient (sample 504) who carried an additional somatic mutation. This germline mutation was previously re- ported in an individual with LFS (17). Of note, all patients with identified TP53 mutations in this study were females (P = . 018, Fisher’s exact test.)
a
No. of somatic SNVs
350
300
Nonsilent
250
Silent
200
150
100
50
0
545
543
538
534
504
505
522
523
528
536
510
514
506
516
542
544
540
547
500
509
548
550
551
520
529
517
521
507
546
541
549
501
515
533
525
539
502
537
511
530
532
TP53
Somatic SNV
CTNNB1
Homozygous deletion
ZNRF3
Amplification
KREMEN1
TERT
O
Gender
Male Female
Cortisol
Hormone
Aldosterone
Androgen
Non-hyperfunctioning
b
4p
Other or not available
5p
Amplification
5q
No amplification
7p
No CNA information
7q
8p
12p
12q
16p
16q
19р
19q
20p
20q
Identifying rare but functionally relevant mutations in ACC
When conducting genetic analysis of rare tumors such as in this study, it is possible that genes harboring muta- tions relevant to pathogenesis may not reach statistical significance. Alternatively, relevant genes in the cohort may be recognized based on prior knowledge of their bi- ological function or their established roles in tumorigen- esis (18). To perform an analysis in a systematic fashion, all mutations in ACC were compared with those a) pre- viously reported in the COSMIC database, and b) muta- tions that occurred at positions where recurrent (>1) mu- tations were previously reported. Applying this criteria, mutations in RB1 (Leu665Arg) and GNAS (Arg201His), both genes with established roles in cancer, were identified
in the ACC cohort (Supplemental Table 3). An additional known tumor suppressor, NF2, contained truncating mu- tations (Gln415* and Arg300*) in two separate samples. Overlooking the above-mentioned criteria for genes ex- cluded based on the limited knowledge of biological func- tions identified additional recurrently mutated COSMIC genes (≥ 3 nonsynonymous mutations in the cohort) with potential roles for tumor development, namely CDC27, SCN7A, and SDK1 (Table 2, Supplemental Table 3).
Copy number alteration analysis
Among the 41 ACCs in this study, 19 had discernible CNAs (Figure 1B, Figure 2, and Supplemental Figure 1). Figure 2A illustrates the overall landscape of gains and losses in this cohort across the whole exome. To determine
| Gene Name | Location (Chromosome) | No. of Mutated Cases | Mutation(s) Observed | Mutation Type | No. with LOH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genes with recurrent mutations | |||||
| CTNNB1 | 3p21 | 2 | Thr41Ala | Missense | LOH (1/2) |
| Recurrently mutated genes (mutations ≥ 3 samples) | |||||
| TP53 | 17p13.1 | 8 | Various | Missense/nonsense | LOH (8/8) |
| CTNNB1 | 3p21 | 4 | Various | Missense | LOH (2/4) |
| CDC27 | 17q21.32 | 3 | Various | Missense | LOH (2/3) |
| SCN7A | 2q21-q23 | 3 | Various | Missense | LOH (1/3) |
| SDK1 | 7p22.2 | 3 | Various | Missense | LOH (1/3) |
| Recurrently mutated genes with damaging mutations + LOH | |||||
| TP53 | 17p13.1 | 3 | Various | Nonsense | LOH (3/3) |
| NF2 | 22q12.2 | 2 | Various | Nonsense | LOH (2/2) |
Abbreviation: LOH, loss of heterozygosity.
which regions were significantly gained or deleted more often than expected by chance, Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in Cancer (GISTIC) was applied (19). GISTIC takes into account the frequency of occurrence and amplitude of a chromosomal aberration, as well as the background rate of CNAs, to establish the statistical sig- nificance of each CNA observed. This approach identified two recurrent focal CNAs (Figure 2B)- gains at 5p15.33 (q-value = 7.1 × 10-2), and deletions across 22q12.1 (q-value = 1.6 × 10-3). The 5p15.33 gain was present in 6/19 tumors with discernible CNAs (31.6%). This seg- ment contains TERT, which encodes for telomerase re- verse transcriptase. Mutations in the promoter region of the TERT gene as well as amplification of this locus have been identified in various human cancers (20, 21). A pre- vious study identified recurrent C228T TERT promoter
mutations in 3/41 ACCs used in this study (Figure 1), and TERT gene expression was demonstrated in all mutated tumors (11). Of note, tumors with TERT aberrations were larger in size compared with ACCs with wild-type TERT, with mean sizes of 14.6 cm and 10.0 cm, respectively (P = .007).
The 22q12.1 deletion contains the gene ZNRF3, and was identified in four tumors with discernible CNA data (Supplemental Figure 2). Further, one additional case (sample 544) harbored a somatic mutation (Ala346Val) in ZNRF3. These data suggest ZNRF3 gene alteration in 5/41 (12.2%) of ACC cases. ZNRF3 was previously re- ported to act as a tumor suppressor by regulating the Wnt signaling pathway (5, 22). In addition, the 22q12.1 dele- tion extended to include all or part of another Wnt re- pressor, KREMEN1 in three tumors (Figure 1A).
a
b
Amplifications
Deletions
15
TERT
Amplifications
1
10
2
3
4
5p15.33
5
5
6
No. of alleles
chromosome
7
8
0
9
10
11
12
5
13
Deletions
14
15
10
16
17
19
18
ZNRF3
15
21
20
22q12.1
22
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 18 20 22
0.25
0.1
0.01
0.25
0.01
0.001
15
17 19 21
chromosome
q-value
GISTIC further identified significant (q-value <0.1) arm-level amplifications across chromosomes 4p, 5, 7, 8p, 12, 16, 19, and 20 (Figure 1B). These results were generally concordant with other studies on CNAs in ACC (5, 12).
Loss of heterozygosity analyses
The overall loss of heterozygosity (LOH) profile of the 41 cases is presented in Supplemental Figure 3. Extensive LOH events were detected, and the LOH profile is con- sistent with the CNA profile as seen in Figure 2A.
Survival analyses
Because mutations in either TP53 or CTNNB1 as well as focal CNAs at the ZNRF3 or TERT loci were mutually exclusive events in our cohort, Kaplan Meier curves plot- ting cohort patients with these genetic aberrancies against overall survival were generated (Supplemental Figure 4). Patients with any of the above-described aberrations (ZNRF3, TP53, CTNNB1, and TERT) were first com- pared, and subsequently these patients were combined into a single group and compared vs all remaining pa- tients. Although not statistically significant (log rank P = .97 and P = . 72 for Supplemental Figure 4 A and B, re- spectively), a trend toward decreased overall survival was noted for patients with ZNRF3 deletions and TP53 mutations.
Gene ontology and pathway analyses
Using four gene ontology software programs, an unbi- ased and significant aggregation of somatic coding muta-
tions in Wnt pathway genes was observed. The Wnt path- way remained one of the highest enriched canonical pathways among this mutated gene set in three of four different gene ontology software programs, and this ob- servation persisted after removal of the case with a hyper- mutator phenotype. NextBio allows a comparison with the MutSig database of significantly mutated genes, which revealed highly significant enrichments of gene sets in- volved in metabolism of lipids, developmental biology, and transmembrane transport, in addition to the Wnt signaling pathway. When only listing somatic mutations with damaging properties (nonsense mutations with concurrent LOH), significant associations with the Wnt (NextBio; P= 4.7×10-3) and TP53-associated pathways (Genomatix; P = 1.34 × 10-4) were observed (Figure 3). Disease Association Protein-Protein Link Evaluator (DAPPLE) analyses of protein-protein interaction among mutated genes in the ACC cohort further suggest a signif- icant association of Wnt pathway proteins, particularly for the central Wnt effectors ß-catenin and CREBBP (Fig- ure 4). These genes were highlighted as having numerous confident interactions with other mutated gene products.
Immunohistochemistry
Expression of ß-catenin was studied in three cases with homozygous ZNRF3/KREMEN1 deletions (516, 523, and 542), as well as the sole case with a ZNRF3 missense mutation (544). None of these four ACCs displayed nu- clear ß-catenin localization (Supplemental Figure 5). In addition, case 528 exhibiting a Leu513Phe CTNNB1 mu-
35
membrane
EI24
4
CD247
NF2
25
EPHB6
1
1
3
membrane
cytosol
RHOBTB1
4
cytosol
cytosol
cytosol
nucleus
TP53
1576
DDX18
4
nucleus
8
KAT7
35
TERF1
4
o
CTBP2
1
3
SIX1
2
1
IGSF1HECTD1
PLXNASAL2
HEATRYB2
MTHFD1L
PPIB
SCN8A
PSPC1
RBP1
APOB
GNAO1
GRM6
HLTF
CRHR1 RGS7
GRM3
GNAS
LRP2
COL4A3
TIMELESS
RGS2
MS4A5
PER1
GNASMADR77
SORLA
PLEKHA6
ITGB1
ARFGEF1
MEGF8
JAG1
TIAL1
MYH7
HADHA
DAB2
A2M
SCARB2
THBS1
KDM3A
LYST
SNRPE
LRP1
LGALS1
SUPT6H
TECPR1
KCNIP1
UPECAR1
PRKAR1A
MUC16
PAPD4
PCDH12
CD97GRB10
CD46
LBP
HNRNPM
HNRNPA2B1
NEB
GAB3
CAST
APLF
RBL2
GRM1
LIG3
UBR3
TYRO3
ZP2
PLCG2
ERBB4
TBC1D4
RBBP8
WDHD1
SRC
SOS2
EREG
TRIP11
MYOZA
NUP188
ENTPD6
ACTN4
DGKAACTN1
MAP1BEXOC5
PRICKLE3
DAG1
NTRK3 RB1
GBAS
LAMA5
MUC7
NUP50
DCC
NLRC4
NLRP4 POLADUSP16
HSPD1
CHUK
LAMC1
RB1CC1
SLC9A8
VAV1
MON2
JUN
MAPK8
MAP3KISA1
ARHGAP32
CUX1
NCOA3
PPARD
CTNNB1
RPS2
EIF3H
IARS2
IFT88
PPP1R3A
LEO1
TP53
ACTR6
CREBBP
CSE1L
PABPC1
HDLBP
SETD2
NCOA1
DAXX
PTPRM
IQGAP1
LRRK1
EPC1
CAMK4
NR3C1
DCHSYF2
DDX18
TMCO4
IGF2R
HDACANCOR1
ABCC9
TP63
CDON
RIMS1
PTPN13
CEBPZ
HEATRT
RBM28
AP1M1
AP1G1
CDK8
IFI16
TEP1
FAT4ERBB2IP
UTP20
SLC25A12
KIF13A
CSMD1
MED14
CLIP1
SENPZ BOLHAS9
MED23
SMARTAD&CD
TLE4
MRPL3
EPHB6
DACH2
RDX
STIP1
DST
DCTNMYO5C
OAT
ETV6
BAZ1B
SIX1
FANCD2
SSSCA1
CTBP2
ABCCZ
C9A1
ACTR2
GTF3C1
UNC5B
KDM2B
TMEM87A
DAPK1
CLUAP1
SGOL1
NDUFA9
CENPM
PHGDH
NDUFB8
ATP2RPC1
TPO CSF3R.19
SC5DL
2e-04
8e-04
0.002
0.008
0.02
0.08
0.2
0.4
1
tation with unknown effect on ß-catenin stabilization was investigated by immunohistochemistry using antibodies targeting ß-catenin, c-[ital]myc, and cyclin D1 (Supple- mental Figure 6). ß-catenin was only visualized in the cy- toplasm of the tumor cells, and no nuclear accumulation was noted. An identical pattern was seen for -[ital]myc, whereas cyclin D1 stained strongly in 90% of tumor cell nuclei.
Discussion
This study reports on the whole-exome sequencing of ACC, characterizing the landscape of somatic mutations
and copy number alterations in these heterogeneous tu- mors. The findings highlight genes with increased muta- tion burden and recurrent mutations, including genes pre- viously implicated in ACC pathogenesis (CTNNB1 and TP53) as well as genes not previously known to exhibit mutations in ACCs (GNAS and NF2). Furthermore, these results corroborate recently uncovered recurrent amplifi- cations of TERT and deletions of 22q12.1, including ZNRF3 (5), and identify COSMIC genes such as CDC27, SCN7A, and SDK1 as recurrently mutated in our cohort. Moreover, the finding of mutually exclusive ZNRF3/ KREMEN1 and TERT loci CNAs as well as TP53 and CTNNB1 mutations in this study suggests divergent
pathogenic mechanisms possibly influencing ACC devel- opment, although the observed phenomenon might be bi- ased by the amount of ACC cases included in this study.
CNA analysis of ACC identified a recurrent gain of TERT in six tumors. TERT promoter mutations have been identified in various human cancers, and this cohort includes three tumors with previously demonstrated re- current C228T mutations, which were previously shown to correlate with increased TERT mRNA expression (11). Similar focal gains at 5p15.33, containing TERT, have also been identified in lung cancer, oral squamous cell carcinoma, and neuroblastoma (23-25). TERT encodes telomerase reverse transcriptase, the catalytic subunit of the enzyme telomerase, which extends telomeres and pre- vents replicative senescence. In many cancers, telomerase activity correlates with proliferative ability of cancer cells and activation of TERT enables replicative immortality (24). There is also evidence for noncanonical functions of TERT, including transcriptional regulation of pathways involved in cancer such as nuclear factor KB and Wnt/B- catenin signaling (26).
Somatic and homozygous deletions at 22q12.1, each including the ZNRF3 locus, were identified in four of the ACCs. ZNRF3 has been shown to act as a tumor suppres- sor, promoting Wnt receptor turnover. Inhibition of ZNRF3 enhances Wnt/ß-catenin signaling, and simulta- neous deletion of ZNRF3 and its related homolog RNF43 induced rapidly growing adenomas in the intestinal epi- thelium of mice (27). Down-regulation of ZNRF3 was also observed in gastric adenocarcinoma tissue com- pared with adjacent normal tissue, and overexpression of ZNRF3 in a gastric cancer cell induced apoptosis and suppressed proliferation (22). KREMEN1 is a high-affin- ity transmembrane receptor for DKK1, which forms a ter- nary complex with KREMEN1 in the presence of high levels of LRP5/6, resulting in inhibition of Wnt signaling (28). The close proximity of these two Wnt repressors in a region frequently deleted in ACC suggests the potential for a synergistic effect when these genes are concomitantly deleted, and it has been hypothesized that loss of ZNRF3 and KREMEN1 together could result in increased accu- mulation of nuclear ß-catenin (29). In our study, all three ACCs with homozygous ZNRF3/KREMEN1 deletions displayed absence of nuclear accumulation of ß-catenin, which would imply that the effect of ZNRF3 loss of func- tion might stem from noncanonical Wnt pathway activa- tion. Indeed, ZNRF3 has also been coupled to the non- canonical planar cell polarity pathway, the latter being a ß-catenin independent pathway with tumorigenic prop- erties (30).
The observed KREMEN1 deletions might represent a passenger event, signified by case 506 in which the ho-
mozygous deletion only encompassed ZNRF3. Indeed, the isolated ZNRF3 deletion in case 506 was mutually exclusive from mutations in TP53 and CTNNB1 (Figure 1). Interestingly, because ZNRF3 and KREMEN1 are both up- stream components of the Wnt pathway, they represent a potential new target for therapeutics in subsets of ACCs.
A trend toward shorter survival for patients with ZNRF3 deletions and TP53 mutations compared with pa- tients with tumors exhibiting CTNNB1 mutations and TERT locus amplifications was seen. Indeed, TP53 mu- tations and aberrant p53 expression have previously been linked to adverse prognosis in adrenocortical carcinoma (31), and the similar patterns obtained between TP53 and ZNRF3 aberrations suggest that ZNRF3 deletions could be of some prognostic significance.
The high frequency of mutations in TP53, observed in 8/41 (19.5%) of cases, is in the same range as prior reports of TP53 in ACC (6, 31). Aberrant p53 expression has been previously associated with decreased disease-free survival (31) and patients with TP53 mutations showed a trend toward association with disease recurrence (P = . 07). The number of tumors with LOH at 17p13, where TP53 is located, is much higher (30/40, 75%), and is concordant with previous findings (6). This observation, together with the high percentage of tumors with 17p13 LOH, but no TP53 mutation, raises the possibility of other genes in the same chromosomal region contributing to ACC pathogenesis.
CTNNB1 mutations were identified in four tumors, three of which were well known gain-of-function muta- tions in exon 3 (9), as well as a Leu513Phe mutation. The exon 3 mutations lead to stabilization of ß-catenin, with accumulation of the transcription factor in the nucleus and downstream activation of the Wnt pathway (32). The Wnt pathway plays an important role in adrenal cell prolifer- ation during development, and CTNNB1-activating so- matic mutations are frequent in adrenal tumors (8). How- ever, these mutations are present in both adenomas and carcinomas (8), and further investigation is necessary to determine the factors that lead a subset of CTNNB1 mu- tant tumors to progress to cancer. Case 528 displaying the CTNNB1 mutation Leu513Phe was negative for nuclear ß-catenin and nuclear c-[ital]myc expression, which im- plies that the detected CTNNB1 mutation in this case either represents a passenger event, or alternatively, it affects other ß-catenin functions besides the classical ca- nonical Wnt effector properties. The CTNNB1 mutations in our cohort were mutually exclusive from TP53 muta- tions (Figure 1A), an observation that has been previously reported in ACC (33), suggesting perturbation of either pathway could lead to activation of similar targets, con- tributing to tumorigenesis.
Potentially disease-causing mutations in GNAS, RB1, and NF2 were also identified. The GNAS Arg201His mu- tation is a widely recurrent mutation present in pituitary, kidney, pancreas, and colon cancers (34-36). GNAS is moreover a recurrently mutated gene in adrenocortical tumors (37), and the Arg201His mutation has been pre- viously described in cortisol-producing adrenocortical tu- mors, and is known to activate cAMP signaling, leading to increased cortisol production (38). The patient harboring this mutation (sample 533) had a tumor with cortisol and androgen hypersecretion. The mutations identified in RB1 and NF2 in this cohort also overlap regions of LOH, con- sistent with their known tumor suppressor roles (39-40). In addition, recurrently mutated genes included CDC27, SCN7A, and SDK1, three COSMIC genes that could merit further attention in future studies. Overall, gene ontology analyses suggest a substantial accumulation of coding so- matic mutations within the Wnt pathway, and mutations in Wnt-associated genes were identified in 27 of 41 cases (66%), reinforcing the relationship between deregulated Wnt signaling and ACC development. This finding implies that molecular aberrancies of the Wnt pathway are po- tential major contributors to the development of adreno- cortical cancer.
To conclude, the current findings help define the genomic landscape of ACC and identify specific pathways that are frequently altered, providing direction for research of tar- geted therapies against these tumors.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Aruna Madan, Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT for technical exper- tise; and Dr Hany Ashmawy, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany for retrieving clinical information.
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Tobias Carling, Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, FMB130A, Box 208062, New Haven, CT 06520. E-mail: tobias.carling@yale.edu.
C.C.J. is supported by the Stockholm County Council (clin- ical postdoctoral appointment). G.G. is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore. U.I.S. is sup- ported by the Ministry of Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. M.B. is supported by the Cancer Society in Stockholm, Sweden. A.S., A.H., and C.L. are supported by the Swedish Cancer So- ciety, Stockholm County Council, and the Swedish Research Council. R.P.L. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Med- ical Institute. T.C. is a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foun- dation clinical investigator partially supported by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The study was also sup- ported by the Yale University-Gilead, Inc., collaboration, and an Ohse Research Award.
The funding sources had no role in the design, conduct, or reporting of this study.
Disclosure Summary: The authors have nothing to disclose.
References
1. Lebastchi AH, Kunstman JW, Carling T. Adrenocortical carcinoma: Current therapeutic state-of-the-art. J Oncol. 2012;2012:234726.
2. Else T, Kim AC, Sabolch A, et al. Adrenocortical carcinoma. Endocr Rev. 2014;35:282-326.
3. Berthon A, Martinez A, Bertherat J, Val P. Wnt/ß-catenin signalling in adrenal physiology and tumour development. Mol Cell Endocri- nol. 2012;351:87-95.
4. Fassnacht M, Kroiss M, Allolio B. Update in adrenocortical carci- noma. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013;98:4551-4564.
5. Assié G, Letouzé E, Fassnacht M, et al. Integrated genomic charac- terization of adrenocortical carcinoma. Nat Genet. 2014;46:607- 612.
6. Libé R, Groussin L, Tissier F, et al. Somatic TP53 mutations are relatively rare among adrenocortical cancers with the frequent 17p13 loss of heterozygosity. Clin Cancer Res. 2007;13:844-850.
7. Lerario AM, Moraitis A, Hammer GD. Genetics and epigenetics of adrenocortical tumors. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2014;386:67-84.
8. Tissier F, Cavard C, Groussin L, et al. Mutations of beta-catenin in adrenocortical tumors: Activation of the Wnt signaling pathway is a frequent event in both benign and malignant adrenocortical tu- mors. Cancer Res. 2005;65:7622-7627.
9. Gaujoux S, Grabar S, Fassnacht M, et al. B-catenin activation is associated with specific clinical and pathologic characteristics and a poor outcome in adrenocortical carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2011; 17:328-336.
10. Heaton JH, Wood MA, Kim AC, et al. Progression to adrenocortical tumorigenesis in mice and humans through insulin-like growth fac- tor 2 and ß-catenin. Am J Pathol. 2012;181:1017-1033.
11. Liu T, Brown TC, Juhlin CC, et al. The activating TERT promoter mutation C228T is recurrent in subsets of adrenal tumors. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2014;21:427-434.
12. Stephan EA, Chung TH, Grant CS, et al. Adrenocortical carcinoma survival rates correlated to genomic copy number variants. Mol Cancer Ther. 2008;7:425-431.
13. Scholl UI, Goh G, Stölting Get al. Somatic and germline CACNA1D calcium channel mutations in aldosterone-producing adenomas and primary aldosteronism. Nat Genet. 2013;45:1050-1054.
14. Lawrence MS, Stojanov P, Polak P, et al. Mutational heterogeneity in cancer and the search for new cancer-associated genes. Nature. 2013;499:214-218.
15. Loeb LA. Human cancers express mutator phenotypes: Origin, con- sequences and targeting. Nat Rev Cancer. 2011;11:450-457.
16. Yoshida R, Miyashita K, Inoue M, et al. Concurrent genetic alter- ations in DNA polymerase proofreading and mismatch repair in human colorectal cancer. Eur J Hum Genet. 2011;19:320-325.
17. Quesnel S, Verselis S, Portwine C, et al. p53 compound heterozy- gosity in a severely affected child with Li-Fraumeni syndrome. On- cogene. 1999;18:3970-3978.
18. Lohr JG, Stojanov P, Lawrence MS, et al. Discovery and prioriti- zation of somatic mutations in diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (DL- BCL) by whole-exome sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; 109:3879-3884.
19. Mermel CH, Schumacher SE, Hill B, Meyerson ML, Beroukhim R, Getz G. GISTIC2.0 facilitates sensitive and confident localization of the targets of focal somatic copy-number alteration in human can- cers. Genome Biol. 2011;12:R41.
20. Zhang A, Zheng C, Lindvall C, et al. Frequent amplification of the telomerase reverse transcriptase gene in human tumors. Cancer Res. 2000;60:6230-6235.
21. Huang FW, Hodis E, Xu MJ, Kryukov GV, Chin L, Garraway LA.
Highly recurrent TERT promoter mutations in human melanoma. Science. 2013;339:957-959.
22. Zhou Y, Lan J, Wang W, et al. ZNRF3 acts as a tumour suppressor by the Wnt signalling pathway in human gastric adenocarcinoma. J Mol Histol. 2013;44:555-563.
23. Cobrinik D, Ostrovnaya I, Hassimi M, Tickoo SK, Cheung IY, Cheung NK. Recurrent pre-existing and acquired DNA copy num- ber alterations, including focal TERT gains, in neuroblastoma cen- tral nervous system metastases. Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 2013; 52:1150-1166.
24. Freier K, Pungs S, Flechtenmacher C, et al. Frequent high telomerase reverse transcriptase expression in primary oral squamous cell car- cinoma. J Oral Pathol Med. 2007;36:267-272.
25. Kang JU, Koo SH, Kwon KC, Park JW, Kim JM. Gain at chromo- somal region 5p15.33, containing TERT, is the most frequent ge- netic event in early stages of non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer Genet Cytogenet. 2008;182:1-11.
26. Low KC, Tergaonkar V. Telomerase: Central regulator of all of the hallmarks of cancer. Trends Biochem Sci. 2013;38:426-434.
27. Koo BK, Spit M, Jordens I, et al. Tumour suppressor RNF43 is a stem-cell E3 ligase that induces endocytosis of Wnt receptors. Na- ture. 2012;488:665-669.
28. Wang K, Zhang Y, Li X, et al. Characterization of the Kremen- binding site on Dkk1 and elucidation of the role of Kremen in Dkk- mediated Wnt antagonism. J Biol Chem. 2008;283:23371-23375.
29. Nord KH, Nilsson J, Arbajian E, et al. Recurrent chromosome 22 deletions in osteoblastoma affect inhibitors of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway. PLoS One. 2013;8:e80725-e80725.
30. Hao HX, Xie Y, Zhang Y, et al. ZNRF3 promotes Wnt receptor turnover in an R-spondin-sensitive manner. Nature. 2012;485:195- 200.
31. Waldmann J, Patsalis N, Fendrich V, et al. Clinical impact of TP53 alterations in adrenocortical carcinomas. Langenbecks Arch Surg. 2012;397:209-216.
32. Giles RH, van Es JH, Clevers H. Caught up in a Wnt storm: Wnt signaling in cancer. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2003;1653:1-24.
33. Ragazzon B, Libé R, Gaujoux S, et al. Transcriptome analysis re- veals that p53 and {beta}-catenin alterations occur in a group of aggressive adrenocortical cancers. Cancer Res. 2010;70:8276- 8281.
34. Dhanasekaran N, Heasley LE, Johnson GL. G protein-coupled re- ceptor systems involved in cell growth and oncogenesis. Endocr Rev. 1995;16:259-270.
35. Fecteau RE, Lutterbaugh J, Markowitz SD, Willis J, Guda K. GNAS mutations identify a set of right-sided, RAS mutant, villous colon cancers. PLoS One. 2014;9:e87966.
36. Wu J, Matthaei H, Maitra A, et al. Recurrent GNAS mutations define an unexpected pathway for pancreatic cyst development. Sci Transl Med. 2011;3:92ra66.
37. Almeida MQ, Azevedo MF, Xekouki P, et al. Activation of cyclic AMP signaling leads to different pathway alterations in lesions of the adrenal cortex caused by germline PRKAR1A defects versus those due to somatic GNAS mutations. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012; 97:E687-693.
38. Goh G, Scholl UI, Healy JM, et al. Recurrent activating mutation in PRKACA in cortisol-producing adrenal tumors. Nat Genet. 2014; 46:613-617.
39. Di Fiore R, D’Anneo A, Tesoriere G, Vento R. RB1 in cancer: Dif- ferent mechanisms of RB1 inactivation and alterations of pRb path- way in tumorigenesis. J Cell Physiol. 2013;228:1676-1687.
40. Harvey KF, Zhang X, Thomas DM. The Hippo pathway and human cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 2013;13:246-257.