Identifying colorectal cancer caused by biallelic MUTYH pathogenic variants using tumor mutational signatures

Carriers of germline biallelic pathogenic variants in the MUTYH gene have a high risk of colorectal cancer. We test 5649 colorectal cancers to evaluate the discriminatory potential of a tumor mutational signature specific to MUTYH for identifying biallelic carriers and classifying variants of uncertain clinical significance (VUS). Using a tumor and matched germline targeted multi-gene panel approach, our classifier identifies all biallelic MUTYH carriers and all known non-carriers in an independent test set of 3019 colorectal cancers (accuracy = 100% (95% confidence interval 99.87-100%)). All monoallelic MUTYH carriers are classified with the non-MUTYH carriers. The classifier provides evidence for a pathogenic classification for two VUS and a benign classification for five VUS. Somatic hotspot mutations KRAS p.G12C and PIK3CA p.Q546K are associated with colorectal cancers from biallelic MUTYH carriers compared with non-carriers (p = 2 × 10-23 and p = 6 × 10-11, respectively). Here, we demonstrate the potential application of mutational signatures to tumor sequencing workflows to improve the identification of biallelic MUTYH carriers.

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Keywords

Colorectal Neoplasms, DNA Glycosylases, DNA Mutational Analysis, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Germ-Line Mutation, Heterozygote, Humans, Mutation

Citation

Nat Commun, 2022, 13 (1), pp. 3254 - ?

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