ROR2 Regulates Cellular Plasticity in Pancreatic Neoplasia and Adenocarcinoma.

Cellular plasticity is a hallmark of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) starting from the conversion of normal cells into precancerous lesions, to the progression of carcinoma subtypes associated with aggressiveness and therapeutic response. We discovered that normal acinar cell differentiation, maintained by the transcription factor Pdx1, suppresses a broad gastric cell identity that is maintained in metaplasia, neoplasia, and the classical subtype of PDAC in mouse and human. We have identified the receptor tyrosine kinase Ror2 as marker of a gastric metaplasia-like identity in pancreas neoplasms. Ablation of Ror2 in a mouse model of pancreatic tumorigenesis promoted a switch to a gastric pit cell identity that largely persisted through progression to the classical subtype of PDAC. In both human and mouse pancreatic cancer, ROR2 activity continued to antagonize the gastric pit cell identity, strongly promoting an epithelial to mesenchymal transition, conferring resistance to KRAS inhibition, and vulnerability to AKT inhibition.

Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Improves the Prognostication of Patients with Disseminated Appendiceal Mucinous Neoplasms (Pseudomyxoma Peritonei).

BACKGROUND: Appendiceal mucinous neoplasms (AMNs) with disseminated disease (pseudomyxoma peritonei) are heterogeneous tumors with variable clinicopathologic behavior. Despite the development of prognostic systems, objective biomarkers are needed to stratify patients. With the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS), it remains unclear if molecular testing can improve the evaluation of disseminated AMN patients. METHODS: Targeted NGS was performed for 183 patients and correlated with clinicopathologic features to include American Joint Committee on Cancer/World Health Organization (AJCC/WHO) histologic grade, peritoneal cancer index (PCI), completeness of cytoreduction (CC) score, and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Genomic alterations were identified for 179 (98%) disseminated AMNs. Excluding mitogen-activated protein kinase genes and GNAS due to their ubiquitous nature, collective genomic alterations in TP53, SMAD4, CDKN2A, and the mTOR genes were associated with older mean age, higher AJCC/WHO histologic grade, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, regional lymph node metastasis, and lower mean PCI (p < 0.040). Patients harboring TP53, SMAD4, ATM, CDKN2A, and/or mTOR gene alterations were found to have lower OS rates of 55% at 5 years and 14% at 10 years, compared with 88% at 5 years and 88% at 10 years for patients without the aforementioned alterations (p < 0.001). Based on univariate and multivariate analyses, genomic alterations in TP53, SMAD4, ATM, CDKN2A, and/or the mTOR genes in disseminated AMNs were a negative prognostic factor for OS and independent of AJCC/WHO histologic grade, PCI, CC score, and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy treatment (p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Targeted NGS improves the prognostic assessment of patients with disseminated AMNs and identifies patients who may require increased surveillance and/or aggressive management.

Tumor Size Differences Between Preoperative Endoscopic Ultrasound and Postoperative Pathology for Neoadjuvant-Treated Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Predict Patient Outcome.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The assessment of therapeutic response after neoadjuvant treatment and pancreatectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has been an ongoing challenge. Several limitations have been encountered when employing current grading systems for residual tumor. Considering endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) represents a sensitive imaging technique for PDAC, differences in tumor size between preoperative EUS and postoperative pathology after neoadjuvant therapy were hypothesized to represent an improved marker of treatment response. METHODS: For 340 treatment-naïve and 365 neoadjuvant-treated PDACs, EUS and pathologic findings were analyzed and correlated with patient overall survival (OS). A separate group of 200 neoadjuvant-treated PDACs served as a validation cohort for further analysis. RESULTS: Among treatment-naïve PDACs, there was a moderate concordance between EUS imaging and postoperative pathology for tumor size (r = 0.726, P < .001) and AJCC 8th edition T-stage (r = 0.586, P < .001). In the setting of neoadjuvant therapy, a decrease in T-stage correlated with improved 3-year OS rates (50% vs 31%, P < .001). Through recursive partitioning, a cutoff of ≥47% tumor size reduction was also found to be associated with improved OS (67% vs 32%, P < .001). Improved OS using a ≥47% threshold was validated using a separate cohort of neoadjuvant-treated PDACs (72% vs 36%, P < .001). By multivariate analysis, a reduction in tumor size by ≥47% was an independent prognostic factor for improved OS (P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: The difference in tumor size between preoperative EUS imaging and postoperative pathology among neoadjuvant-treated PDAC patients is an important prognostic indicator and may guide subsequent chemotherapeutic management.

Multidisciplinary management of the pregnant patient in haemorrhagic shock secondary to an undiagnosed ruptured liver adenoma.

Management of a ruptured hepatocellular adenoma during pregnancy is a rare and potentially life-threatening entity. Few case reports have described management of the pregnant patient who presents in haemorrhagic shock secondary to a ruptured liver adenoma. A 30-year-old primigravid woman at 31 weeks pregnant presented with abdominal pain and fetal bradycardia. After stat caesarean delivery of the infant, she had continued hemoperitoneum and was in shock secondary to an undiagnosed ruptured liver mass. General surgery was consulted intraoperatively and performed an exploratory laparotomy, packing and temporary closure. She was subsequently taken to interventional radiology (IR) for angioembolisation of the left hepatic artery. After stabilisation, she underwent formal abdominal closure. Management of a ruptured hepatocellular adenoma in pregnancy requires urgent multidisciplinary care including obstetrics gynaecology, general surgery and IR.

Molecular Diagnostics in the Evaluation of Pancreatic Cysts.

Within the past few decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the detection of incidental pancreatic cysts. It is reported a pancreatic cyst is identified in up to 2.6% of abdominal scans. Many of these cysts, including serous cystadenomas and pseudocysts, are benign and can be monitored clinically. In contrast, mucinous cysts, which include intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms and mucinous cystic neoplasms, have the potential to progress to pancreatic adenocarcinoma. In this review, we discuss the current management guidelines for pancreatic cysts, their underlying genetics, and the integration of molecular testing in cyst classification and prognostication.

Expression of high affinity folate receptor in breast cancer brain metastasis.

High affinity folate receptor (HFR) can be overexpressed in breast cancer and is associated with poor prognosis, however the expression in breast cancer brain metastases (BCBM) is unknown. The aim of this study was to analyze the rate of HFR expression in BCBM and its role in the prognosis of this high-risk cohort. We analyzed 19 brain metastasis (BM) and 13 primary tumors (PT) from a total of 25 patients. HFR status was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Median follow-up was 4.2 years (range 0.6-18.5). HFR was positive in 4/19 BM (21.1%) and in 1/13 PT (7.7%). Positive samples had low H-scores (range 1-50). 56% of patients had apocrine differentiation. OS was similar between patients with positive HFR (median OS 48 months) and negative HFR (median OS 69 months) (P = 0.25); and between patients with apocrine differentiation (median OS 63 months) and those without apocrine differentiation (median OS 69 months) (P = 0.49). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of HFR expression in BCBM. While previous studies associated the presence of HFR with worse prognosis; in our cohort HFR was positive in only 21.1% of BM with low levels of positivity. Neither HFR nor apocrine features had impact in OS.

Mouse model of colonic adenoma-carcinoma progression based on somatic Apc inactivation.

Mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene are pivotal in colorectal tumorigenesis. Existing mouse intestinal tumor models display mainly small intestinal lesions and carcinomas are rare. We defined human CDX2 sequences conferring colon epithelium-preferential transgene expression in the adult mouse. Mice carrying a CDX2P-NLS Cre recombinase transgene and a loxP-targeted Apc allele developed mainly colorectal tumors, with carcinomas seen in 6 of 36 (17%) of mice followed for 300 days. Like human colorectal lesions, the mouse tumors showed biallelic Apc inactivation, beta-catenin dysregulation, global DNA hypomethylation, and aneuploidy. The predominantly distal colon and rectal distribution of tumors seen in mice where one Apc allele was inactivated in epithelial cells from distal ileum to rectum suggests that regional differences in the intestinal tract in the frequency and nature of secondary genetic and epigenetic events associated with adenoma outgrowth have a contributing role in determining where adenomas develop. The presence of large numbers of small intestine tumors seemed to inhibit colorectal tumor development in the mouse, and gender-specific effects on tumor multiplicity in the distal mouse colon and rectum mimic the situation in humans where males have a larger number of advanced adenomas and carcinomas in the distal colon and rectum than females. The mouse model of colon-preferential gene targeting described here should facilitate efforts to define novel factors and mechanisms contributing to human colon tumor pathogenesis, as well as work on tumor-promoting environmental factors and agents and strategies for cancer prevention and treatment.

Tpp1/Acd maintains genomic stability through a complex role in telomere protection.

Telomeres serve to protect the ends of chromosomes, and failure to maintain telomeres can lead to dramatic genomic instability. Human TPP1 was identified as a protein which interacts with components of a telomere cap complex, but does not directly bind to telomeric DNA. While biochemical interactions indicate a function in telomere biology, much remains to be learned regarding the roles of TPP1 in vivo. We previously reported the positional cloning of the gene responsible for the adrenocortical dysplasia (acd) mouse phenotype, which revealed a mutation in the mouse homologue encoding TPP1. We find that cells from homozygous acd mice harbor chromosomes fused at telomere sequences, demonstrating a role in telomere protection in vivo. Surprisingly, our studies also reveal fusions and radial structures lacking internal telomere sequences, which are not anticipated from a simple deficiency in telomere protection. Employing spectral karyotyping and telomere FISH in a combined approach, we have uncovered a striking pattern; fusions with telomeric sequences involve nonhomologous chromosomes while those lacking telomeric sequences involve homologues. Together, these studies show that Tpp1/Acd plays a vital role in telomere protection, but likely has additional functions yet to be defined.

Pten dependence distinguishes haematopoietic stem cells from leukaemia-initiating cells.

Recent advances have highlighted extensive phenotypic and functional similarities between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells. This raises the question of whether disease therapies can be developed that eliminate cancer stem cells without eliminating normal stem cells. Here we address this issue by conditionally deleting the Pten tumour suppressor gene in adult haematopoietic cells. This led to myeloproliferative disease within days and transplantable leukaemias within weeks. Pten deletion also promoted haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) proliferation. However, this led to HSC depletion via a cell-autonomous mechanism, preventing these cells from stably reconstituting irradiated mice. In contrast to leukaemia-initiating cells, HSCs were therefore unable to maintain themselves without Pten. These effects were mostly mediated by mTOR as they were inhibited by rapamycin. Rapamycin not only depleted leukaemia-initiating cells but also restored normal HSC function. Mechanistic differences between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells can thus be targeted to deplete cancer stem cells without damaging normal stem cells.