Abstract
Osteosarcoma is an aggressive malignancy characterized by high genomic complexity. Identification of few recurrent mutations in protein coding genes suggests that somatic copy-number aberrations (SCNAs) are the genetic drivers of disease. Models around genomic instability conflict-it is unclear if osteosarcomas result from pervasive ongoing clonal evolution with continuous optimization of the fitness landscape or an early catastrophic event followed by stable maintenance of an abnormal genome. We address this question by investigating SCNAs in 12,019 tumor cells obtained from expanded patient tissues using single-cell DNA sequencing, in ways that were previously impossible with bulk sequencing. Using the CHISEL algorithm, we inferred allele- and haplotype-specific SCNAs from whole-genome single-cell DNA sequencing data. Surprisingly, we found that, despite extensive genomic aberrations, cells within each tumor exhibit remarkably homogeneous SCNA profiles with little sub-clonal diversification. Longitudinal analysis between two pairs of patient samples obtained at distant time points (early detection, relapse) demonstrated remarkable conservation of SCNA profiles over tumor evolution. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the bulk of SCNAs was acquired early in the oncogenic process, with few new events arising in response to therapy or during adaptation to growth in distant tissues. These data suggest that early catastrophic events, rather than sustained genomic instability, drive formation of these extensively aberrant genomes. Overall, we demonstrate the power of combining single-cell DNA sequencing with an allele- and haplotype-specific SCNA inference algorithm to resolve longstanding questions regarding genetics of tumor initiation and progression, questioning the underlying assumptions of genomic instability inferred from bulk tumor data.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Financial support: This work was supported by funding provided by: NIH/NCI (K08CA201638, RDR), St Baldrick’s Foundation Scholar Award (RDR), Hyundai Hope on Wheels Young Investigator Award (RDR), CancerFree Kids Foundation (RDR), Steps for Sarcoma Foundation (RDR), Sarcoma Foundation of America (RDR), a Pelotonia Fellowship (SR), and an NIH CTSA Grant UL1TR002733.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.