Whole-exome and targeted gene sequencing of gallbladder carcinoma identifies recurrent mutations in the ErbB pathway

Individuals with gallbladder carcinoma (GBC), the most aggressive malignancy of the biliary tract, have a poor prognosis. Here we report the identification of somatic mutations for GBC in 57 tumor-normal pairs through a combination of exome sequencing and ultra-deep sequencing of cancer-related genes. The mutation pattern is defined by a dominant prevalence of C>T mutations at TCN sites. Genes with a significant frequency (false discovery rate (FDR) <0.05) of non-silent mutations include TP53 (47.1%), KRAS (7.8%) and ERBB3 (11.8%). Moreover, ErbB signaling (including EGFR, ERBB2, ERBB3, ERBB4 and their downstream genes) is the most extensively mutated pathway, affecting 36.8% (21/57) of the GBC samples. Multivariate analyses further show that cases with ErbB pathway mutations have a worse outcome (P = 0.001). These findings provide insight into the somatic mutational landscape in GBC and highlight the key role of the ErbB signaling pathway in GBC pathogenesis.