Genomic landscape of Chinese patients with hepatocellular carcinoma using next-generation sequencing and its association with the prognosis

Abstract

Introduction and objectives: The occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not entirely clear at present. This study comprehensively described the landscape of genetic aberrations in Chinese HCC patients using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and investigated the association of genetic aberrations with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. Materials and methods: The clinicopathological data of 78 HCC patients undergoing surgery were retrospectively analyzed. The genomic DNA extracted from tumor samples was detected using a NGS-based gene panel. Results: Mutations in TP53 (55%), TERT (37%), MUC16 (29%) and CTNNB1 (27%) were most common in HCC. The co-occurrences between frequently mutated genes occurring ≥10% were relatively common in HCC. Forty-eight (61.5%) cases harbored DNA damage repair gene mutations, mainly including PRKDC (11.5%), SLX4 (9.0%), ATM (7.7%), MSH6 (7.7%), and PTEN (6.4%), and 39 (50.0%) patients had at least one actionable mutation. FH amplification (odds ratio: 3.752, 95% confidence interval: 1.170-12.028, p=0.026) and RB1 mutations (odds ratio: 13.185, 95% confidence interval: 1.214-143.198, p=0.034) were identified as the independent risk factors for early postoperative recurrence in HCC. Conclusions: Our study provides a novel insight into the genomic profiling of Chinese HCC patients. FH amplification and RB1 mutations may be associated with an increased risk of early postoperative recurrence in HCC.