Urothelial Cancers with Small Cell Variant Histology Have Confirmed High Tumor Mutational Burden, Frequent TP53 and RB Mutations, and a Unique Gene Expression Profile

Although predominantly urothelial, some bladder cancer and upper tract urothelial cancer (BC/UTUC) harbor histologic variants. Small cell BC (SCBC) variants comprised5% of The Cancer Genome Atlas BC cohort, with a poor prognosis. We describe genomic profiles of BC/UTUC with small cell/neuroendocrine features identified in the Foundation Medicine database from June 2012 to September 2018. Of 3368 BC/UTUC samples, 3.92% (132) harbored small cell/neuroendocrine features by immunohistochemistry. Mutations were noted in: TP53 (92%), RB1 (75%), combined TP53/RB1 (72%), and TERT promoter (68%). Of the samples, 6.5% had TMB >= 10 mutations/Mb. RNA expression profiling of 24 pure SCBC and 51 urothelial BC (UBC) muscle-invasive samples evaluated from a separate cohort revealed a large number of differentially expressed genes with suppression of several inflammatory pathways in SCBC compared with UBC. This largest reported SCBC dataset to date confirms enrichment of signatures in SCBC similar to small cell lung cancer and describes unique gene expression compared with UBC. These findings may explain aggressive SCBC phenotype. Patient summary: Small cell bladder cancer (SCBC) is an aggressive subtype that microscopically resembles aggressive small cell lung cancer (SCLC). This study confirms that SCBC shares DNA changes similar to SCLC and that SCBC expresses many genes that urothelial bladder cancer does not, possibly explaining aggressive SCBC activity. (c) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of European Association of Urology.

Automated summary

This study identified small cell/neuroendocrine features in some bladder cancer and upper tract urothelial cancer samples, with mutations in genes like TP53 and RB1, as well as differential gene expression compared to urothelial bladder cancer. These findings may explain the aggressive phenotype of small cell bladder cancer.