Comprehensive Genomic Characterization of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Upper urinary tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) may have unique etiologic and genomic factors compared to bladder cancer. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the genomic landscape of UTUC and provide insights into its biology using comprehensive integrated genomic analyses. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We collected 31 untreated snap-frozen UTUC samples from two institutions and carried out whole-exome sequencing (WES) of DNA, RNA sequencing (RNAseq), and protein analysis. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Adjusting for batch effects, consensus mutation calls from independent pipelines identified DNA mutations, gene expression clusters using unsupervised consensus hierarchical clustering (UCHC), and protein expression levels that were correlated with relevant clinical variables, The Cancer Genome Atlas, and other published data. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: WES identified mutations in FGFR3 (74.1%; 92% low-grade, 60% high-grade), KMT2D (44.4%), PIK3CA (25.9%), and TP53 (22.2%). APOBEC and CpG were the most common mutational signatures. UCHC of RNAseq data segregated samples into four molecular subtypes with the following characteristics. Cluster 1: no PIK3CA mutations, nonsmokers, high-grade