Colorectal carcinoma with double somatic mismatch repair gene inactivation: clinical and pathological characteristics and response to immune checkpoint blockade

Mod Pathol. 2019 Oct;32(10):1551-1562. doi: 10.1038/s41379-019-0289-6. Epub 2019 Jun 7.

Abstract

Double somatic mismatch-repair-gene mutation/alteration is a recently recognized molecular mechanism that underlies microsatellite instability-high in some colorectal carcinomas. It remains to be determined whether and how microsatellite instability-high tumors with this molecular defect differ from their counterparts caused by other mechanisms, specifically, Lynch syndrome-associated and MLH1-promoter hypermethylated. In this study, we evaluated the clinical and pathological characteristics of a series of 15 double somatic mutation/alteration-associated microsatellite instability-high colorectal carcinomas identified from our genetics service and 68 such cases reported in the literature. We observed that these cases presented at an age similar to MLH1-promoter hypermethylated (n = 20) and microsatellite-stable (n = 39) cases but older than Lynch syndrome-associated cases (n = 20, p < 0.05). While these tumors simulated other microsatellite instability-high tumors in their prevalent right-sided location, they appeared to differ in TNM stages at presentation (73% stage III/IV versus 25% stage III/IV in other microsatellite instability-high tumors, p = 0.04). Histologically, 40% of them had a dominant solid growth pattern. Inter-tumoral heterogeneity was a striking feature, spanning the spectrum from medullary type (with a tumor-infiltrating-lymphocyte/high-power-field count as high as 59) to conventional-type with only few tumor-infiltrating-lymphocytes (1/high-power-filed). As a group, these tumors seemed less likely to show robustly high lymphocytic infiltration than other microsatellite instability-high tumors (only 20% had ≥10 tumor-infiltrating-lymphocytes/high-power-filed, whereas this rate in Lynch syndrome-associated and MLH1-promoter hypermethylated tumors was 60% and 75%, respectively). Three double somatic mutation/alteration-associated tumors were treated with a PD1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor. While all three had an elevated tumor-mutation-burden (>47 mut/megabase), only one had tumor-infiltrating-lymphocytes >10/high-power-field, yet all three exhibited measurable response. In summary, microsatellite instability-high colorectal carcinomas caused by double somatic mismatch-repair-gene mutation/alteration may have varied clinical and pathological characteristics, and some may have relatively low tumor-infiltrating-lymphocytes; response to immune checkpoint inhibitors can be achieved in this group even when the lymphocytic infiltration is not abundant.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological / therapeutic use
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / pathology
  • Colorectal Neoplasms, Hereditary Nonpolyposis / drug therapy
  • Colorectal Neoplasms, Hereditary Nonpolyposis / genetics*
  • Colorectal Neoplasms, Hereditary Nonpolyposis / pathology
  • DNA Mismatch Repair*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Microsatellite Instability*
  • Middle Aged
  • MutL Protein Homolog 1 / genetics*
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological
  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • MutL Protein Homolog 1