SF3B1 Mutations in AML, MDS and MDS/MPN-RS-T Are Accompanied By Different Other Gene Mutations: Impact for Targeted Treatment Studies

Introduction: Precision medicine aims at the molecular profiling of patients to specifically target gene mutations. Targeted therapies now enter leukemia treatment, e.g. by targeting FLT3-ITD or mutations in DNMT3A, TET2, IDH1/2 or JAK2. Recently, luspatercept, a fusion protein (ACE-536), was shown to inhibit different signaling cascades, resulting in differentiation and maturation of erythropoietic progenitors in anemic patients (Platzbecker et al., Haematologica 2015). Interestingly, only patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and ring sideroblasts (RS) responded to luspatercept, suggesting SF3B1 to be a potential biomarker. Besides MDS, SF3B1 mutations occur also in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and MDS/myeloproliferative neoplasms with RS and thrombocytosis (MDS/MPN-RS-T). However, concomitant gene mutations bearing prognostic information and/or also being therapeutic targets as well as the cytogenetic background may need to be addressed in addition before further investigation.

Aim: To investigate the mutation pattern and cytogenetic background of patients with AML, MDS and MDS/MPN-RS-T carrying SF3B1 mutations.

Patients and Methods: In a cohort of 365 patients - all showing SF3B1 mutations and the diagnosis of AML (n=51), MDS (n=263) or MDS/MPN-RS-T (n=51) - cytomorphology, cytogenetics and mutation status were available. The cohort comprised 145 females and 220 males, the median age was 75 yrs (range: 42-93 yrs). In all patients ASXL1, RUNX1, TP53 as important prognostic markers as well as DNMT3A, FLT3-TKD, IDH1/2, JAK2, K/NRAS and TET2 as optional targets were analysed for mutations. Furthermore, additional entity specific gene mutations were investigated in respective subcohorts (AML: CEBPA, FLT3-ITD, MLL-PTD, NPM1; MDS: ETV6, EZH2, SRSF2, U2AF1, ZRSR2; MDS/MPN-RS-T: MDS genes, CBL, MPL).

Results: 73% of all patients (268/365) showed normal karyotypes. Addressing molecular genetics resulted in 370 mutations beside SF3B1 in 238 patients, leaving only 23% of patients (84/365) showing no other aberration than in SF3B1. The variant allele frequencies (VAF) of SF3B1 mutations were high in nearly all cases with only few (9/353) subclonal cases (VAF <10%). In AML the median VAF of SF3B1 was 45% (range: 5-70%) with 3 cases showing subclonal mutations, likewise in MDS with a VAF of 39% (range: 3-50%) and 6 subclonal cases, while in MDS/MPN-RS-T the VAF was also 39% (range: 15-50%) without any subclonal case.

In detail, 63% of AML cases showed normal karyotypes. Looking at gene mutations revealed that 49/51 patients (96%) had additional gene mutations (median: 2, range: 0-4), while 28/51 cases (55%) showed mutations in at least one of the therapeutically relevant genes. Of note, 37/51 patients (73%) had a mutation known to be associated with adverse prognosis. Therefore, in AML just one patient had a sole SF3B1 mutation and only 3/51 cases (6%) showed only other targetable mutations beside SF3B1.

In MDS 73% of patients showed normal karyotypes. MDS patients showed in median 1 additional mutation (range: 0-4), leaving 115/263 (44%) patients without additional mutations. Furthermore, 124/263 (47%) patients carried mutations in a therapeutically relevant gene, while only 32/263 cases (12%) had mutations worsening prognosis. This results in 74/263 MDS patients (28%) without any additional aberration and 85/263 patients (32%) showing only other targetable mutations beside SF3B1.

Furthermore, 84% of MDS/MPN-RS-T showed normal karyotypes. In median 1 additional mutation (range: 0-7) was identified in MDS/MPN-RS-T patients, while 10/51 cases (20%) showed no additional mutation. Looking at therapeutically relevant gene mutations revealed in 39/51 patients a respective mutation, while 7/51 patients carried prognostically adverse mutations. Therefore, MDS/MPN-RS-T patients show also a high proportion of cases without additional aberration (9/51, 18%) and even 47% (24/51) of patients having only targetable gene mutations.

Conclusion: 1) SF3B1 mutation is supposed to be in the main clone. 2) AML, MDS and MSD/MPN-RS-T differ in their respective patterns of molecular aberrations beside SF3B1 mutations. 3) MDS patients show most frequently SF3B1 mutations as sole abnormality and might therefore benefit best from SF3B1 targeting treatment. 4) Treatment decisions should in all cases consider additional targetable mutations but also those worsening prognosis.