Adaptation and selection shape clonal evolution of tumors during residual disease and recurrence

Nat Commun. 2020 Oct 6;11(1):5017. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18730-z.

Abstract

The survival and recurrence of residual tumor cells following therapy constitutes one of the biggest obstacles to obtaining cures in breast cancer, but it remains unclear how the clonal composition of tumors changes during relapse. We use cellular barcoding to monitor clonal dynamics during tumor recurrence in vivo. We find that clonal diversity decreases during tumor regression, residual disease, and recurrence. The recurrence of dormant residual cells follows several distinct routes. Approximately half of the recurrent tumors exhibit clonal dominance with a small number of subclones comprising the vast majority of the tumor; these clonal recurrences are frequently dependent upon Met gene amplification. A second group of recurrent tumors comprises thousands of subclones, has a clonal architecture similar to primary tumors, and is dependent upon the Jak/Stat pathway. Thus the regrowth of dormant tumors proceeds via multiple routes, producing recurrent tumors with distinct clonal composition, genetic alterations, and drug sensitivities.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Crizotinib / pharmacology
  • Doxycycline / pharmacology
  • Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / genetics
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms / pathology
  • Lung Neoplasms / secondary
  • Mice, Nude
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / drug therapy
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / genetics*
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / pathology*
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met / genetics
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / genetics
  • Single-Cell Analysis
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Crizotinib
  • ERBB2 protein, human
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met
  • Receptor, ErbB-2
  • Doxycycline