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Abstract Details
Molecular subclasses of hepatocellular carcinoma predict sensitivity to fibroblast growth factor receptor inhibition
Schmidt B1, Wei L1, DePeralta DK1, Hoshida Y2, Tan P2,3, Sun X2, Sventek JP1, Lanuti M4, Tanabe KK1, Fuchs BC1. Int J Cancer. 2015 Oct 20. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29893. [Epub ahead of print]
Author information
1Division of Surgical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
2Liver Cancer Program, Tisch Cancer Institute, Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
3Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medicine Cluster, National University Health System, Singapore.
4Division of Thoracic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Abstract
A recent gene expression classification of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) includes a poor survival subclass termed S2 representing about one third of all HCC in clinical series. S2 cells express E-cadherin, and c-myc and secrete AFP. As the expression of fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) differs between S2 and non-S2 HCC, this study investigated whether molecular subclasses of HCC predict sensitivity to FGFR inhibition. S2 cell lines were significantly more sensitive (p<0.001) to the FGFR inhibitors BGJ398 and AZD4547. BGJ398 decreased MAPK signaling in S2 but not in non-S2 cell lines. All cell lines expressed FGFR1 and FGFR2, but only S2 cell lines expressed FGFR3 and FGFR4. FGFR4 siRNA decreased proliferation by 44% or more in all five S2 cell lines (p<0.05 for each cell line), a significantly greater decrease than seen with knockdown of FGFR1-3 with siRNA transfection. FGFR4 knockdown decreased MAPK signaling in S2 cell lines, but little effect was seen with knockdown of FGFR1-3. In conclusion, the S2 molecular subclass of HCC is sensitive to FGFR inhibition. FGFR4-MAPK signaling plays an important role in driving proliferation of a molecular subclass of HCC. This classification system may help identify those patients who are most likely to benefit from inhibition of this pathway.