Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) is a highly conserved component of energy production and metabolism. Genetic or epigenetic inactivation of SDH (dSDH) creates a state of intracellular pseudohypoxia that is uniquely oncogenic for subtypes of GIST, renal cell carcinoma (RCC), paraganglioma/pheochromocytoma (PGL/Pheo), and pituitary adenoma/carcinoma (PAC). dSHD stems from homozygous loss of one of four subunit encoding genes SDHA, SDHB, SDHC, or SDHD (aka, SDHx). dSDH is not targetable, and preclinical models are poorly viable. In the current study we analyze comprehensive genomic profiles (CGP) from a dSDH pan-tumor cohort for potential therapy-enabling non-SDHx genomic alterations and biomarkers (GA).
231,706 clinical grade CGP were searched for dSDH GIST, RCC, PGL/Pheo, and PAC. GA were determined on 1.1 Mb genome sequence encompassing up to 324 cancer genes. dSDH was further established by histopathology review and analysis of SDHx homozygous loss. Germline and zygosity status of SDHx variants were performed by SGZ algorithm. Non-SDHx GA were assessed for therapeutic actionability.
82 SDH-deficient neoplasms were analyzed (Table). 0 of 38 GIST had highly actionable GA. In one case a subclonal KIT variant was identified in a recurrence of an SDHA-mutant GIST treated with Imatinib for several years. No clonal canonical driver kinase mutations were identified in KIT, PDGFRA, NF1, BRAF, FGFR1 or NTRK1-3. 0 of 36 dSDH PGL/Pheo and 0 of 1 PAC had potential therapeutic options. 2 of 7 dSDH RCC reported potential treatment options for oncogenic variants in EGFR and CDK4. No dSDH tumors had high TMB, microsatellite instability, or LOH score indicative of homologous recombination defect (HRD). Overall, 2 of 82 tumors (2.4%) harbored highly actionable GA. 2039P82 SDH-deficient tumors GIST (n = 38) PGL/Pheo (n = 36) RCC (n = 7) PAC (n = 1) Age (mean) 33 40 49 44 Sex ratio (M/F) 16/21 24/12 4/3 0/1 SDHA 11 12 3 1 SDHB 7 21 3 0 SDHC 4 1 1 0 SDHD 2 2 0 0 SDHx-WT 14 0 0 0 %SDHx germline 69 64 100 50 GA/tumor (pathogenic non-SDHx) 0.58 0.89 2.29 0 MSI 0 0 0 0 TMB (mut/Mb, mean) 1.86 2.4 3 0.9 HRD (LOHscore >16%) 0 0 0 0
This study identifies SDH deficiency as a lone driver of malignancy and without associated actionable GA in > 97% of cases, and underscores the need for novel therapeutic approaches targeting SDH deficiency itself.
Foundation Medicine.
Foundation Medicine.
J.K. Killian: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. D.C. Pavlick: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. E.S. Sokol: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. M. Montesion: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. D.X. Jin: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. B. Kaplan: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. D. Lin: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. J. Vergilio: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. J.A. Elvin: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. N. Ngo: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. E. Severson: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. S. Ramkissoon: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. D. Duncan: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. C. Edgerly: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. A. Hemmerich: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. G.M. Frampton: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. V.A. Miller: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. S.M. Ali: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. J.S. Ross: Full / Part-time employment: Foundation Medicine. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.