Genomic analysis of hepatoblastoma identifies distinct molecular and prognostic subgroups

  • Pavel Sumazin
  • , Yidong Chen
  • , Lisa R. Treviño
  • , Stephen F. Sarabia
  • , Oliver A. Hampton
  • , Kayuri Patel
  • , Toni Ann Mistretta
  • , Barry Zorman
  • , Patrick Thompson
  • , Andras Heczey
  • , Sarah Comerford
  • , David A. Wheeler
  • , Murali Chintagumpala
  • , Rebecka Meyers
  • , Dinesh Rakheja
  • , Milton J. Finegold
  • , Gail Tomlinson
  • , D. Williams Parsons
  • , Dolores López-Terrada

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

193 Scopus citations

Abstract

Despite being the most common liver cancer in children, hepatoblastoma (HB) is a rare neoplasm. Consequently, few pretreatment tumors have been molecularly profiled, and there are no validated prognostic or therapeutic biomarkers for HB patients. We report on the first large-scale effort to profile pretreatment HBs at diagnosis. Our analysis of 88 clinically annotated HBs revealed three risk-stratifying molecular subtypes that are characterized by differential activation of hepatic progenitor cell markers and metabolic pathways: high-risk tumors were characterized by up-regulated nuclear factor, erythroid 2–like 2 activity; high lin-28 homolog B, high mobility group AT-hook 2, spalt-like transcription factor 4, and alpha-fetoprotein expression; and high coordinated expression of oncofetal proteins and stem-cell markers, while low-risk tumors had low lin-28 homolog B and lethal-7 expression and high hepatic nuclear factor 1 alpha activity. Conclusion: Analysis of immunohistochemical assays using antibodies targeting these genes in a prospective study of 35 HBs suggested that these candidate biomarkers have the potential to improve risk stratification and guide treatment decisions for HB patients at diagnosis; our results pave the way for clinical collaborative studies to validate candidate biomarkers and test their potential to improve outcome for HB patients. (Hepatology 2017;65:104-121).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)104-121
Number of pages18
JournalHepatology
Volume65
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Hepatology

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