FGFR2 alteration as a potential therapeutic target in poorly cohesive gastric carcinoma

Background Poorly cohesive (PC) is a unique histologic subtype of gastric cancer (GC), with an increasing incidence in recent years. However, the molecular characteristics and therapeutic targets of PC GC are not yet well studied and there are no effective therapies for these patients. Methods Formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples of 556 GC patients, including 64 PC GC, were collected for next-generation sequencing (NGS). Clinical characteristics and genomic profiling were analyzed. FGFR2 expression was detected by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). FGFR2 inhibitors response was studied in vitro. Results Among 556 GC patients, PC GC patients were younger (P = 0.004), had lower tumor mutation burden (TMB-L) (P = 0.001) than non-PC GC. The top 10 most frequently mutated genes in PC GC were TP53 (48%), CDH1 (31%), ARID1A (14%), FGFR2 (14%), ERBB2 (9%), CDKN2A (9%), FGF3 (8%), LRP1B (9%), FGF19 (8%) and FGF4 (8%). Noticeably, FGFR2 is more frequently mutated than non-PC GC (14% vs. 6%, P = 0.037), including copy number variants (CNVs, 12.5%) and gene rearrangements (3.1%, FGFR2/VTI1A and FGFR2/TACC2). Former studies have confirmed that gain of copy number could increase FGFR2 expression and sensitivity to FGFR2 inhibitors in GC. However, no research has verified the function of FGFR2 rearrangements in GC. Our results showed that cell lines of GC transfected with TACC2-FGFR2 fusion had increased mRNA and protein expression of FGFR2, and were more sensitive to FGFR2 inhibitors. FGFR2 inhibitors might be a new therapeutic target for PC GC. In addition, we found patients of PC GC harboring gene rearrangements (n = 9) had poorer overall survival (OS) in comparison with patients without any gene rearrangement (n = 19) (16.0 months vs 21.0 months, P = 0.043). Gene rearrangement might be an adverse prognostic factor for PC GC patients. Conclusions FGFR2 alterations were recurrent in PC GC and FGFR2 inhibitors might be a new therapeutic target for PC GC.