Molecular Pathology of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinomas: A Retrospective Study of 144 Cases

Background: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a rare tumor, with poorly defined oncogenic molecular mechanisms and limited therapeutic options contributing to its poor prognosis. The aims of this retrospective study were to determine the frequency of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) translocations and to identify the mutational profile of ATC including TERT promoter mutations.

Methods and materials: One hundred and forty-four ATC cases were collected from 10 centers that are a part of the national French network for management of refractory thyroid tumors. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis for ALK rearrangement was performed on tissue microarrays. A panel of 50 genes using next-generation sequencing and TERT promoter mutations using Sanger sequencing were also screened.

Results: Fluorescence in situ hybridization was interpretable for 90 (62.5%) cases. One (1.1%) case was positive for an ALK rearrangement with a borderline threshold (15% positive cells). Next-generation sequencing results were interpretable for 94 (65.3%) cases, and Sanger sequencing (TERT) for 98 (68.1%) cases. A total of 210 mutations (intronic and exonic) were identified. TP53 alterations were the most frequent (54.4%). Forty-three percent harbored a mutation in the (H-K-N)RAS genes, 13.8% a mutation in the BRAF gene (essentially p.V600E), 17% a PI3K-AKT pathway mutation, 6.4% both RAS and PI3K pathway mutations, and 4.3% both TP53 and PTEN mutations. Nearly 10% of the cases showed no mutations of the RAS, PI3K-AKT pathways, or TP53, with mutations of ALK, ATM, APC, CDKN2A, ERBB2, RET, or SMAD4, including mutations not yet described in thyroid tumors. Genes encoding potentially druggable targets included: mutations in the ATM gene in four (4.3%) cases, in ERBB2 in one (1.1%) case, in MET in one (1.1%) case, and in ALK in one (1.1%) case. A TERT promoter alteration was found in 53 (54.0%) cases, including 43 C228T and 10 C250T mutations. Three out of our cases did not harbor mutations in the panel of genes with therapeutic interest.

Conclusion: This study confirms that ALK rearrangements in ATC are rare and that the mutational landscape of ATC is heterogeneous, with many genes implicated in the follicular epithelial cell dedifferentiation process. This may explain the limited effectiveness of targeted therapeutic options tested so far.