Clonal relationship of relapsing diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Recurrences of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) result in significant morbidity and mortality, but their underlying genetic and biological mechanisms are unclear. Clonal relationship in DLBCL relapses so far is mostly addressed by the investigation of immunoglobulin (IG) rearrangements, therefore lacking deeper insights into genome-wide lymphoma evolution. We studied mutations and copy number aberrations in 20 paired relapsing and 20 non-relapsing DLBCL cases aiming to test the clonal relationship between primaries and relapses, to track tumors’ genetic evolution and to investigate the genetic background of DLBCL recurrence. Three clonally-unrelated DLBCL relapses were identified (15%). Also, two distinct patterns of genetic evolution in clonally-related relapses were detected: (1) early-divergent/branching evolution from a common progenitor in 6 patients (30%), and (2) late-divergent/linear progression of relapses in 11 patients (65%). Analysis of recurrent genetic events identified potential early drivers of lymphomagenesis (KMT2D, MYD88, CD79B and PIM1). The most frequent relapse-specific events were additional mutations in KMT2D and alterations of MEF2B. SOCS1 mutations were exclusive to non-relapsing DLBCL, whereas primaries of relapsing DLBCL more commonly displayed gains of 10p15.3-p12.1 containing the potential oncogenes PRKCQ, GATA3, MLLT10 and ABI1. Altogether, our study expands knowledge on clonal relationship, genetic evolution and mutational basis of DLBCL relapses. There are 62 copy number Agilent 180k SurePrint arrays in total, which represent 40 cases. There are 21 arrays of primary relapsing DLBCL tumors, 21 arrys of matched relapses and 20 arrays of non relapsing DLBCLs.