Upper tract urothelial carcinoma has a luminal-papillary T-cell depleted contexture and activated FGFR3 signaling

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10873-y
• Publication Date: 2019-07-05T10:03:06Z
• Authors: Brian D. Robinson; Panagiotis J. Vla...; Bhavneet Bhinder; Weisi Liu; Kailyn Li; Tyler J. Moss; Rohan Bareja; Kyung Park; Peyman Tavassoli; Joanna Cyrta; Scott T. Tagawa; David M. Nanus; Himisha Beltran; Ana M. Molina; Francesca Khani; Juan Miguel Mosquera; Evanguelos Xylinas; Shahrokh F. Shariat; Douglas S. Scherr; Mark A. Rubin; Seth P. Lerner; Surena F. Matin; Olivier Elemento; Bishoy M. Faltas
• Keywords: Urothelial Cell

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is characterized by a distinctly aggressive clinical phenotype. To define the biological features driving this phenotype, we performed an integrated analysis of whole-exome and RNA sequencing UTUC. Here report several key insights from our molecular dissection disease: 1) Most UTUCs are luminal-papillary; 2) UTUC has T-cell depleted immune contexture; 3) High FGFR3 expression enriched in correlates with its microenvironment; 4) Sporadic lower total mutational burden than bladder. Our findings lay foundation for deeper understanding biology provide rationale development UTUC-specific treatment strategies.