Molecular characteristics of advanced colorectal cancer and multi-hit PIK3CA mutations

3535 Background: Approximately 20% of colorectal cancer (CRC) has an activating mutation in the PIK3CA oncogene. PIK3CA codes for the catalytic subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase alpha (PI3Kα), which ultimately activates the AKT and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. The PI3Kα inhibitor alpelisib has been approved for breast cancer where a single PIK3CA activating mutation is sufficient for response. However, two activating mutations (multi-hit) in the PIK3CA allele substantially increases PI3Kα signaling compared to single hot spot mutations and results in exceptional response to PI3Kα inhibition. We aimed to identify the prevalence of PIK3CA multi-hit mutations in CRC to identify patients potentially susceptible to PI3K inhibitors. Methods: Tissue-based comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) was performed in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified, CAP (College of American Pathologists)-accredited laboratory (Foundation Medicine Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA) on all-comers during the course of routine clinical care from 2013-2021. Approval was obtained from the Western Institutional Review Board (Protocol No. 20152817). Hybrid capture was carried out for at least 324 cancer-related genes, including PIK3CA. Results: We identified 48,836 patients with advanced CRC who underwent Foundation Medicine testing and 846 (1.7%) patients with multi-hit PIK3CA mutations. Additional clinical and molecular data was available for 41,154 of these patients of which 710 (1.7%) had multi-hit PIK3CA and 7627 (19%) had any deleterious PIK3CA mutation . The local colon tumor was used for sequencing in 70% of cases and a separate site in 30% of cases. Patients with PIK3CA multi-hit mutations were 53% male with a median age of 60 (interquartile range 50-70). The microsatellite status was available for 697 of 710 patients with multi-hit PIK3CA and 123/697 (18%) were microsatellite instability-high. The Table outlines the genes with cooccurring mutations of >10% prevalence for multi-hit PIK3CA CRC, including the clinically relevant mutations in KRAS (65%) and BRAF (13%). The four most common PIK3CA variants were H1047R (9.8%), E545K (9.2%), E542K (9.0%) and R88Q (7.1%). The most common variant pair was E542K with E545K in 4.7% of multi-hit cases. Conclusions: Double-hit mutations in PIK3CA are seen in 1.7% of advanced CRC patients and may represent a subset of patients that may have enhanced sensitivity to PI3K inhibitors. Given the high prevalence of CRC in the United States and worldwide this represents a clinically meaningful prevalence of multi-hit PIK3CA. Future investigation on the clinical utility of PI3K inhibitors may be warranted in multi-hit PIK3CA CRC.[Table: see text]