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Cancer-Associated Mutations in Endometriosis without Cancer
Michael S Anglesio1, Nickolas Papadopoulos1, Ayse Ayhan1
1From the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (M.S.A., C.A., C.W., P.J.Y., D.G.H.) and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (M.S.A., T.M.N., J. Senz, B.T.-C., C.B.G., D.G.H.), University of British Columbia, the Department of Anatomical Pathology, Vancouver General Hospital (T.M.N., H.M.H., J.H., V.L., B.T.-C., A.W., C.B.G., D.G.H.), the Department of Molecular Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Agency (H.M.H., A.L., V.L., N.B., D.G.H.), and the BC Women's Centre for Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis, BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre (F.W., N.O., C.A., C.W., P.J.Y.) - all in Vancouver, BC, Canada; the Department of Oncology (N.P., C.T., K.W.K., L.D., T.-L.W., B.V., I.-M.S.) and Ludwig Center (N.P., Y.W., J.D.C., M.Z., M.P., W.M., A.M., K.W.K., L.D., B.V.), Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Departments of Pathology (N.P., A.A., M.N., L.D.W., T.-L.W., B.V., I.-M.S.) and Gynecology and Obstetrics (J. Segars, I.-M.S.), Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Personal Genome Diagnostics (S.J.), and Johns Hopkins University Howard Hughes Medical Institute (B.V.) - all in Baltimore; the Department of Pathology, Seirei Mikatahara Hospital (A.A., H.O.), and the Department of Tumor Pathology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine (A.A.), Hamamatsu, and the Department of Molecular Pathology, Hiroshima University School of Medicine, Hiroshima (A.A.) - all in Japan; the Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands (M.N.); the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology (T.S.) and Pathology (R.A., A.H.), Lenox Hill Hospital-Northwell Health (Hofstra University), New York; and the Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Tao-Yuan City, Taiwan (R.-C.W.).
Background:
Endometriosis, defined as the presence of ectopic endometrial stroma and epithelium, affects approximately 10% of reproductive-age women and can cause pelvic pain and infertility. Endometriotic lesions are considered to be benign inflammatory lesions but have cancerlike features such as local invasion and resistance to apoptosis.
Methods:
We analyzed deeply infiltrating endometriotic lesions from 27 patients by means of exomewide sequencing (24 patients) or cancer-driver targeted sequencing (3 patients). Mutations were validated with the use of digital genomic methods in microdissected epithelium and stroma. Epithelial and stromal components of lesions from an additional 12 patients were analyzed by means of a droplet digital polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) assay for recurrent activating KRAS mutations.
Results:
Exome sequencing revealed somatic mutations in 19 of 24 patients (79%). Five patients harbored known cancer driver mutations in ARID1A, PIK3CA, KRAS, or PPP2R1A, which were validated by Safe-Sequencing System or immunohistochemical analysis. The likelihood of driver genes being affected at this rate in the absence of selection was estimated at P=0.001 (binomial test). Targeted sequencing and a droplet digital PCR assay identified KRAS mutations in 2 of 3 patients and 3 of 12 patients, respectively, with mutations in the epithelium but not the stroma. One patient harbored two different KRAS mutations, c.35G→T and c.35G→C, and another carried identical KRAS c.35G→A mutations in three distinct lesions.
Conclusions:
We found that lesions in deep infiltrating endometriosis, which are associated with virtually no risk of malignant transformation, harbor somatic cancer driver mutations. Ten of 39 deep infiltrating lesions (26%) carried driver mutations; all the tested somatic mutations appeared to be confined to the epithelial compartment of endometriotic lesions.
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