Background: Unexplained cytopenia comprises a spectrum of hematological diseases from idiopathic cytopenia of undetermined significance (ICUS) to myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) is the standard tool to assess risk in MDS. Here, we investigated the occurrence, characteristics, and changing pattern of mutations in patients with ICUS and MDS stratified by IPSS-R score.
Methods: A total of 211 patients were enrolled: 73 with ICUS and 138 with MDS. We analyzed the sequencing data of a targeted gene panel assay covering 141 genes using the MiSeqDx platform (Illumina). The lower limit of variant allele frequency (VAF) was set to 2.0% of mutant allele reads. Bone marrow components were assessed for the revised diagnosis according to the 2016 WHO classification. Lower-risk (LR) MDS was defined as those cases with very low- or low-risk MDS according to the IPSS-R. Higher-risk (HR) MDS was defined as those cases with high- or very high-risk MDS according to the IPSS-R.
Results: Patients with ICUS were classified as very low-risk (39.7%), low-risk (54.8%), and intermediate-risk (5.5%) according to the IPSS-R. Patients with MDS were classified as LR (35.5%), intermediate-risk (30.4%), and HR (34.1%). In the ICUS, 28 (38.4%) patients carried at least one mutation in the recurrently mutated genes in MDS (MDS mutation). The most commonly mutated genes were DNMT3A (11.0%), followed by TET2 (9.6%), BCOR (4.1%), and U2AF1, SRSF2, IDH1 and ETV6 (2.7% for each). IPSS-R classification was not associated with mutational VAF and the number of mutations in ICUS. In the 49 LR MDS, 28 (57.1%) patients carried at least one MDS mutation. The most commonly mutated genes were SF3B1 (20.4%), followed by TET2 (12.2%), U2AF1 (10.2%), DNMT3A (10.2%), ASXL1 (10.2%), and BCOR (6.1%). Higher VAF and number of mutations were observed in LR MDS compared to ICUS patients. In the 42 intermediate-risk MDS, 27 (64.3%) patients carried at least one MDS mutation. The most commonly mutated genes were ASXL1 (23.8%), followed by TET2 (21.4%), RUNX1 (16.7%), U2AF1 (14.3%), DNMT3A (14.3%), SF3B1 (9.5%), and SRSF2, BCOR, STAG2 and CBL (7.1% for each). In the 47 HR MDS, 36 (76.6%) patients carried at least one MDS mutation. The most commonly mutated genes were TET2 (25.5%), followed by DNMT3A (14.9%), TP53 (14.9%), RUNX1 (12.8%), U2AF1 (10.6%), ASXL1 (10.6%), and SRSF2 and KRAS (6.4% for each). As the disease progressed, VAF and number of the MDS mutations gradually increased, and mutations involving RNA splicing, histone modification, transcription factor or p53 pathway had a trend for increasing frequency. Specifically, ASXL1, TP53, and RUNX1 mutations were the most striking features in patients with advanced stage of the disease. Cohesin mutations were not detected in ICUS, whereas these mutations were detected at a relatively high frequency in HR MDS. Our data were summarized in Table 1.
Conclusions: We demonstrate that on disease progression, MDS mutations are increased in number as well as are expanded in size. Furthermore, a subset of mutations tends to be enriched for intermediate- to HR MDS. The results of this study can aid both diagnostic and prognostic stratification in patients with unexpected cytopenia. In particular, characterization of MDS mutations can be useful in refining bone marrow diagnosis in challenging situations such as distinguishing LR MDS from ICUS.
No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
