Profiling diverse sequence tandem repeats in colorectal cancer reveals co-occurrence of microsatellite and chromosomal instability involving Chromosome 8

Abstract

Colorectal carcinomas (CRCs) which have lost DNA mismatch repair display hypermutability evident in a molecular phenotype called microsatellite instability (MSI). These mismatch repair deficient tumors are thought to lack widespread genomic instability features, such as copy number changes and rearrangements. To identify MSI for clinical diagnosis, current molecular testing looks for changes in mononucleotide or dinucleotide repeats. However, microsatellites have other types of sequence tandem repeats such as tri- and tetranucleotide motifs. These additional classes of microsatellites are generally not examined for MSI but are known to be unstable in a phenotype known as elevated microsatellite alterations at selected tetranucleotide repeats, or EMAST. We developed a sequencing approach that provides ultra-high coverage (>2500X) of microsatellite targets and cancer genes for profiling genomic instability. We assessed the diverse repeat motifs across 200 microsatellites. Our approach provides highly sensitive detection of MSI with high specificity, evaluates copy number alterations with high accuracy, delineates chromosomal instability (CIN) classification and deconvolutes subclonal architecture. By examining both MSI and CIN, we discovered mutations and copy number alterations that defined mixed genomic instability states of CIN and MSI, which are normally considered exclusive. An increase in copy number of chromosome arm 8q was prevalent among MSI tumors. Moreover, we identified an inter-chromosomal translocation event from a CRC with co-occurrence of MSI. Subclonal analysis demonstrated that mutations which are typically considered to be exclusive in MSI, shows mutual occurrence in MSI tumors with more sensitive characterization. Our approach revealed that MSH3 mutations are a potential source of mixed genomic instability features. Overall, our study demonstrates that some colorectal cancers have features of both microsatellite and chromosomal instability. This result may have implications for immunotherapy treatment.