Truncating mutations of STAG2 define a molecular subgroup of aneuploid bladder cancers with poor prognosis.
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ABSTRACT: Aneuploidy is among the most common hallmarks of cancer, yet the underlying genetic mechanisms are still poorly defined. We have recently identified STAG2 as a gene that is mutated in human cancer and whose inactivation leads directly to chromosomal instability and aneuploidy. However, no single tumor type has yet been identified in which inactivation of a cohesin subunit represents a predominant mutational event. Here we used immunohistochemistry to screen a panel of 2,214 tumors from each of the major human tumor types to identify additional tumor types harboring somatic loss of STAG2. Strikingly, STAG2 expression was completely absent in 18% of urothelial carcinomas, the most common type of bladder cancer and the fifth most common cancer in the United States. DNA sequencing revealed that somatic mutations of STAG2 were present in 21% of urothelial carcinomas, which were found to be a group of highly aneuploid tumors. The acquisition of STAG2 mutations was shown to be an early event in the pathogenesis of urothelial carcinoma. STAG2 loss was significantly associated with lymph node invasion, increased disease recurrence, and reduced cancer-specific survival. These results identify STAG2 as one of the most commonly mutated genes in bladder cancer discovered to date, and demonstrate that STAG2 inactivation defines an aggressive subtype of bladder cancer with particularly poor prognosis. Affymetrix CytoScan HD Arrays were performed according to the manufacturer's directions on genomic DNA extracted directly from snap-frozen human urothelial carcinoma primary tumors. Copy number analysis using Affymetrix CytoScan HD Arrays was performed for 12 human urothelial carcinomas of the bladder with truncating mutations of the STAG2 gene.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
SUBMITTER: David Solomon
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-41581 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
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