Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is characterized by a distinctly aggressive clinical phenotype. To define the biological features driving this phenotype, we performed an integrated analysis of whole-exome and RNA sequencing of UTUC. Here we report several key insights from our molecular dissection of this disease: 1) Most UTUCs are luminal-papillary; 2) UTUC has a T-cell depleted immune contexture; 3) High FGFR3 expression is enriched in UTUC and correlates with its T-cell depleted immune microenvironment; 4) Sporadic UTUC is characterized by a lower total mutational burden than urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Our findings lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of UTUC biology and provide a rationale for the development of UTUC-specific treatment strategies.
Nature communications. 2019 Jul 05*** epublish ***
Brian D Robinson, Panagiotis J Vlachostergios, Bhavneet Bhinder, Weisi Liu, Kailyn Li, Tyler J Moss, Rohan Bareja, Kyung Park, Peyman Tavassoli, Joanna Cyrta, Scott T Tagawa, David M Nanus, Himisha Beltran, Ana M Molina, Francesca Khani, Juan Miguel Mosquera, Evanguelos Xylinas, Shahrokh F Shariat, Douglas S Scherr, Mark A Rubin, Seth P Lerner, Surena F Matin, Olivier Elemento, Bishoy M Faltas
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, 10065, USA., Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, 10065, USA., Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, 10065, USA., Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USA., Department of Urology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, 10065, USA., Scott Department of Urology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA., Department of Urology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USA., Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, 10021, USA., Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, 10021, USA. .