RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Inflamed and non-inflamed classes of HCC: a revised immunogenomic classification
JF Gut
JO Gut
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Society of Gastroenterology
SP 129
OP 140
DO 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-325918
VO 72
IS 1
A1 Carla Montironi
A1 Florian Castet
A1 Philipp K Haber
A1 Roser Pinyol
A1 Miguel Torres-Martin
A1 Laura Torrens
A1 Agavni Mesropian
A1 Huan Wang
A1 Marc Puigvehi
A1 Miho Maeda
A1 Wei Qiang Leow
A1 Elizabeth Harrod
A1 Patricia Taik
A1 Jigjidsuren Chinburen
A1 Erdenebileg Taivanbaatar
A1 Enkhbold Chinbold
A1 Manel Solé Arqués
A1 Michael Donovan
A1 Swan Thung
A1 Jaclyn Neely
A1 Vincenzo Mazzaferro
A1 Jeffrey Anderson
A1 Sasan Roayaie
A1 Myron Schwartz
A1 Augusto Villanueva
A1 Scott L Friedman
A1 Andrew Uzilov
A1 Daniela Sia
A1 Josep M Llovet
YR 2023
UL http://gut.bmj.com/content/72/1/129.abstract
AB Objective We previously reported a characterisation of the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) immune contexture and described an immune-specific class. We now aim to further delineate the immunogenomic classification of HCC to incorporate features that explain responses/resistance to immunotherapy.Design We performed RNA and whole-exome sequencing, T-cell receptor (TCR)-sequencing, multiplex immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry in a novel cohort of 240 HCC patients and validated our results in other cohorts comprising 660 patients.Results Our integrative analysis led to define: (1) the inflamed class of HCC (37%), which includes the previously reported immune subclass (22%) and a new immune-like subclass (15%) with high interferon signalling, cytolytic activity, expression of immune-effector cytokines and a more diverse T-cell repertoire. A 20-gene signature was able to capture ~90% of these tumours and is associated with response to immunotherapy. Proteins identified in liquid biopsies recapitulated the inflamed class with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.91; (2) The intermediate class, enriched in TP53 mutations (49% vs 29%, p=0.035), and chromosomal losses involving immune-related genes and; (3) the excluded class, enriched in CTNNB1 mutations (93% vs 27%, p<0.001) and PTK2 overexpression due to gene amplification and promoter hypomethylation. CTNNB1 mutations outside the excluded class led to weak activation of the Wnt-βcatenin pathway or occurred in HCCs dominated by high interferon signalling and type I antigen presenting genes.Conclusion We have characterised the immunogenomic contexture of HCC and defined inflamed and non-inflamed tumours. Two distinct CTNNB1 patterns associated with a differential role in immune evasion are described. These features may help predict immune response in HCC.Data are available in a public, open access repository. Data are available on reasonable request. The RNAseq and Whole-exome sequencing data for the primary cohort have been deposited at the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA), which is hosted by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) (Accession code EGAS00001005364). The TCRseq and any other relevant data can be obtained from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. The data used for second cohort where the liquid-biopsy analysis was performed has been deposited at GEO with accession number GSE174570.