Demographic Trends, Co-Alterations, and Imatinib Resistance across Genomic Variants in Gastrointestinal Stromal...

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract, the treatment of which represents a significant breakthrough in targeted cancer therapy. Given its overall rare nature, genomic differences and clinical implications between demographic groups have not been previously investigated.

Anonymized demographic, clinical, and genomic data from 1,559 GIST patients in the American Association for Cancer Research Project GENIE database were analyzed using cBioPortal and custom Python scripts. Data on patient demographics, genomic alterations, and co-occurrence genetic alerations were collected and classified according to clinical implications using the OncoKB database. χ2 tests for differences in genomic alterations were used across various demographic factors and mutual exclusivity analysis was employed to identify co-mutation patterns.

Male patients demonstrated higher incidence of PDGFRA mutation (14.56% vs. 8.05%; p < 0.001), while female patients had higher likelihood of NF1 mutations (7.46% vs. 3.23%; p = 0.001). Asian patients had higher alteration rates at KIT (85.59%; p = 0.002). Co-occurrence analysis revealed KIT alterations frequently co-occurred with CDKN2A (q < 0.001), MTAP (q = 0.045), and PTEN (q = 0.056), while there was mutual exclusivity with PDGFRA (q < 0.001), NF1 (q < 0.001), and BRAF (q = 0.015). CDKN2A alterations co-occurred with MTAP (q < 0.001) and PIK3CA (q = 0.015), while being mutually exclusive with TP53 (q = 0.002) and NF1 (q = 0.007). Trends were similar among patients who had received no prior medical treatment. Imatinib-resistant mutations were more common among male patients (25.6% vs. 18.9%; p = 0.0056) and individuals under 55 (27.3% vs. 20.9%; p = 0.0228). Among patients with imatinib-resistant mutations, 77.78% had sunitinib resistance, while 70.25% maintained sensitivity to ripretinib.

Sex and race/ethnic differences in genomic alterations, as well as co-mutations, were prevalent among patients with GIST. Variations in mutational profiles highlight the importance of distinct genetic drivers that may be targeted to treat different patient populations.