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  ORAL 25 - Biology and Other Issues in SCLC (ID 125)

  • Event: WCLC 2015
  • Type: Oral Session
  • Track: Small Cell Lung Cancer
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:J. Sage, L. Montuenga
  • Coordinates: 9/08/2015, 10:45 - 12:15, 605+607

  • 14842

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    ORAL25.07 - DNA Methylation in Small Cell Lung Cancer Defines Distinct Disease Subtypes and Correlates with High Expression of EZH2 (ID 3031)

    11:50 - 12:01  |  Author(s): E. Gardner
    • Abstract
    • Presentation
    • Slides

    Background:
    Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine lung tumor characterized by extreme plasticity, high metastatic potential, and capacity for acquired resistance to chemotherapy. Despite significant advances in our understanding of SCLC genetics and etiology, the epigenetics of this deadly disease remain under studied. This study profiles DNA methylation in primary SCLC, patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and cell lines at single-nucleotide resolution.
    
    Methods:
    This study profiled DNA methylation at single-nucleotide resolution in 47 extensively characterized SCLC samples, including 34 fresh frozen primary SCLC tumors as well as 6 distinct primary patient-derived xenografts and 7 cell lines using the Illumina Human Methylation 450k Bead Chip array. Importantly, 24 primary SCLC in this study have previously been analyzed by whole exome sequencing and RNAseq, allowing integrated analysis of these data types with measurements of DNA methylation. We applied unsupervised clustering, discrete and locally clustered differential methylation analysis, correlation with gene expression, spacial correlation with genomic features, and interrogated the role of the EZH2 methyltransferase in SCLC using bioinformatic and pharmacologic approaches.
    
    Results:
    Unsupervised clustering of all samples revealed that PDX clustered with primary SCLC, while cell lines were easily discriminated. We explored this phenomenon further and found that while the top differentially methylated CpGs in both PDX and cell lines were >80% concordant with primary SCLC, only PDX maintained high concordance across larger probe lists. Unsupervised clustering of primary SCLC revealed three distinct subgroups at both the DNA methylation and gene expression levels that correlated with expression of the neurogenic transcription factors ASCL1 and NEUROD1. The chromatin modifier EZH2 was expressed >12-fold higher in SCLC than in normal lung. In addition to the high expression observed in SCLC compared to normal lung, we observed a significant correlation between median EZH2 gene expression and promoter methylation using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Overall, EZH2 expression in SCLC is greater than or comparable to that of any other tumor type represented in TCGA. EZH2 protein expression was detected by Western blot in 15/17 SCLC PDXs (88%). We assessed the efficacy of the potent EZH2 inhibitor EPZ-5687 in the LX92 SCLC PDX in vivo. EPZ-5687 was well-tolerated and demonstrated remarkable efficacy at 100 mg/kg either QD or BID.
    
    Conclusion:
    DNA methylation patterns in primary SCLC are more closely mirrored by those found in PDX, compared to cell lines, including PDX lines of very high passage. Distinct epigenetic subtypes could be observed in SCLC, even among histologically indistinguishable samples with similar mutation profiles. SCLC is notable for consistent high level DNA methylation clustered in promoters containing CpG islands. Promoter methylation in SCLC is distinct from other lung cancers and correlates strongly with high-level expression of the histone methyltransferase gene EZH2. Pharmacologic inhibition of EZH2 in a SCLC PDX markedly inhibited tumor growth. These findings point to a critical role of EZH2 in SCLC tumor biology and support further preclinical efficacy studies in models of SCLC.
    
    

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