Abstract
Pediatric high-grade glioma (HGG) is a devastating disease with a less than 20% survival rate 2 years after diagnosis1. We analyzed 127 pediatric HGGs, including diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) and non-brainstem HGGs (NBS-HGGs), by whole-genome, whole-exome and/or transcriptome sequencing. We identified recurrent somatic mutations in ACVR1 exclusively in DIPGs (32%), in addition to previously reported frequent somatic mutations in histone H3 genes, TP53 and ATRX, in both DIPGs and NBS-HGGs2,3,4,5. Structural variants generating fusion genes were found in 47% of DIPGs and NBS-HGGs, with recurrent fusions involving the neurotrophin receptor genes NTRK1, NTRK2 and NTRK3 in 40% of NBS-HGGs in infants. Mutations targeting receptor tyrosine kinase–RAS-PI3K signaling, histone modification or chromatin remodeling, and cell cycle regulation were found in 68%, 73% and 59% of pediatric HGGs, respectively, including in DIPGs and NBS-HGGs. This comprehensive analysis provides insights into the unique and shared pathways driving pediatric HGG within and outside the brainstem.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Tissue Resource Facility and B. Gordon, M. Johnson, S. Brown and C. Calabrese in the St. Jude Small Animal Imaging Core for expert assistance with intracranial implantations. We thank E. Shore and A. Culbert (University of Pennsylvania) for helpful advice with antibody selection. This work was supported by the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, by the American Lebanese and Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (P01 CA096832 to S.J.B., Jinghui Zhang and D.W.E. and R01 CA135554 to S.J.B.), by the Cure Starts Now Foundation and the Smile for Sophie Forever Foundation, and by Tyler's Treehouse and Musicians Against Childhood Cancer.
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S.J.B., Jinghui Zhang, A.K.D., B.S.P., J.E., L.D., E.R.M., R.K.W., M.R.T., J.R.D. and D.W.E. designed experiments or supervised research. A.G., A.B., C.W., F.A.B. and C.J. provided samples or clinical data. G.W., A.K.D., B.S.P., S.L.R., B.J., Y.L., X.Z., C.Q., X.C., Junyuan Zhang, J.E., M.E., X.M., C.L., P.N., E.H., M.R., S.P., T.L., A.O.-T., R.H., R.K., M.P., P.G., J.B., L.W., H.L.M., K.B., B.V., D.Y., J.C.R., K.O., R.S.F., L.L.F., L.D., E.R.M., R.K.W., M.R.T., J.R.D., D.W.E., Jinghui Zhang and S.J.B. performed experiments, analyzed data or prepared tables and figures. D.W.E. completed all pathological evaluations. S.J.B., Jinghui Zhang, G.W. and A.K.D. wrote the manuscript with contributions from D.W.E., J.R.D. and M.R.T.
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the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. The genomic landscape of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma and pediatric non-brainstem high-grade glioma. Nat Genet 46, 444–450 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2938
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2938
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