Myeloid Malignancies with Isolated 7q Deletion Can be Further Characterized By Their Accompanying Molecular Mutations

Background: 7q deletions (del(7q)) are recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities. They occur either as the sole abnormality or accompanied by additional chromosome aberrations in AML, MDS, MDS/MPN and MPN. Cases with del(7q) as the sole abnormality are rare and poorly characterized.  

Aim: In patients with myeloid malignancies and del(7q) as the sole abnormality we determined 1. Type and size of the del(7q) 2. Spectrum of accompanying molecular mutations and their impact on the phenotype.

Patients and Methods:  81 cases with myeloid malignancies and del(7q) as the sole abnormality were included in this study. Of these 38 had AML (27 de novo, 7 secondary, 4 therapy-related), 17 MDS (14 de novo, 3 therapy-related), 10 MDS/MPN (9 CMML, 1 MDS/MPN unclassifiable) and 16 MPN. The median age was 72 years (range: 29-89 years). All cases were investigated by array CGH (Agilent, Waldbronn, Germany) and for mutations in ASXL1, CALR, CBL, DNMT3A, ETV6, EZH2, JAK2, KRAS, MPL, NPM1, NRAS, RUNX1, SF3B1, SRSF2, TET2, and TP53.

Results: Array CGH revealed an interstitial del(7q) in 67 cases, while 14 cases showed terminal del(7q). Further characterization of these deletions using 24 color FISH revealed unbalanced translocations in 10 of the 14 cases with terminal deletion. Partner chromosomes were X, 8, 9, 12, 13, 17 (n=2), 19 (n=2), and 22. The breakpoints on chromosome 7 were diverse ranging from 7q11 to 7q32. In two cases the breakpoint was within the CDK6 gene. In two cases with terminal del(7q) the complete loss of 7q was due to an idic(7)(q11.21). In the remaining two cases the terminal deletion could not be further resolved. In the 67 cases with interstitial del(7q) the size of the del(7q)  varied between 1.8 and 158.9 Mb (median: 52.6 Mb). No commonly deleted region could be identified for all cases. However, in 57 cases the deleted region encompassed genomic position 101,912.442 (7q22.1) to 119,608.824 (7q31.31) including 111 genes. The size of the 7q deletion was smaller in cases with interstitial deletion as compared to terminal deletion (57.7 MB vs 70.9 MB, p=0.04) and in MPN as compared to all other entities (48.7 MB vs 62.8 MB, p<0.001). The mutation analyses revealed mutations in TET2 37% (25/67), ASXL1 35% (27/78), RUNX1 26% (18/69), DNMT3A 21% (14/68), SRSF2 18% (13/73), JAK2V617F 14% (11/79), CBL 9% (7/75), NRAS 9% (7/77), MLL-PTD 5% (4/80), KRAS 5% (3/66), EZH2 4% (3/72), TP53 4% (3/74), SF3B1 4% (3/75), ETV6 3% (2/73), NPM1 3% (2/77), CALR 1% (1/77), MPL 1% (1/76). ASXL1 and TET2 were frequently co-mutated as 56% of ASXL1 mutated cases also harbored a TET2 mutation (p=0.02). 39 cases were analysed for all 16 molecular mutations. The majority of patients (n=27, 69%) had more than one mutation (range: 2-4), 9 patients (23%) had one mutation and in 3 patients (8%) no mutation was detected. The number of mutations per patient was lower in patients <70 years as compared to patients ≥70 years (0, 1,2,3,4 mutations detected in: 23%, 15%, 15%, 46%, and 0% vs 0%, 27%, 27%, 31%, and 15%, p=0.05). CBL mutations were most frequent in CMML (44%) but rare in all other subtypes (5%, p=0.003), while RUNX1 mutations were most frequent in AML (43% vs 9%; p=0.002) and JAK2V617F mutations most frequent in MPN (50% vs 5%, p<0.001). DNMT3A mutations and MLL-PTD were significantly more frequent in de novo AML than in all other entities (43% vs 11%, p=0.007; 15% vs 0%, p=0.009), while no significant differences in frequency were observed between the different entities for any of the other mutations or the number of mutations per case. In CMML CBL mutations were associated with del(7q) (44%) as CBL mutations were present in only 17% of non del(7q) CMML (n=101, p=0.07). The frequency of RUNX1 mutations was significantly higher in AML with del(7q) as the sole abnormality (43%) as compared to all other AML (n=2273, 21%; p=0.001). Median overall survival (OS) for the total cohort was 25 months and did not differ significantly between AML, MDS, MDS/MPN and MPN (26, 27, not reached, 15 months, respectively).

Conclusions: 1. Sizes and localisations of the del(7q) largely overlapped between AML, MDS, MDS/MPN and MPN. 2. 92% of all patients with 7q deletion harbored at least 1 molecular mutation. 3. TET2 and ASXL1 were the most frequently mutated genes and were present at comparable frequencies in all subtypes. 4. AML with del(7q) is closely associated with RUNX1 mutations while CMML with del(7q) frequently harbored CBL mutations suggesting a cooperative leukemogenic potential in these entities.