Unraveling the cellular origin and clinical prognostic markers of infant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia using genome-wide analysis

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the commonest childhood cancer. In infants, B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia remains fatal, especially in patients with t(4;11), present in ~80% of cases. The pathogenesis of t(4;11)/KMT2A-AFF1+ (MLL-AF4+) infant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia remains difficult to model, and the pathogenic contribution in cancer of the reciprocal fusions resulting from derivative translocated-chromosomes remains obscure. Here, "multi-layered" genome-wide analyses and validation were performed on a total of 124 de novo cases of infant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia uniformly diagnosed and treated according to the Interfant 99/06 protocol. These patients showed the most silent mutational landscape reported so far for any sequenced pediatric cancer. Recurrent mutations were exclusively found in K-RAS and N-RAS, were subclonal and were frequently lost at relapse, despite a larger number of non-recurrent/non-silent mutations. Unlike non-MLL-rearranged B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias, B-cell receptor repertoire analysis revealed minor, non-expanded B-cell clones in t(4;11)+ infant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and RNA-sequencing showed transcriptomic similarities between t(4;11)+ infant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias and the most immature human fetal liver hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, confirming a "pre-VDJ" fetal cellular origin for both t(4;11) and RAS mut The reciprocal fusion AF4-MLL was expressed in only 45% (19/43) of the t(4;11)+ patients, and HOXA cluster genes are exclusively expressed in AF4-MLL-expressing patients. Importantly, AF4-MLL/HOXA-expressing patients had a significantly better 4-year event-free survival (62.4% vs 11.7%, P=0.001), and overall survival (73.7 vs 25.2%, P=0.016). AF4-MLL expression retained its prognostic significance when analyzed in a Cox model adjusting for risk stratification according to the Interfant-06 protocol based on age at diagnosis, white blood cell count and response to prednisone. This study has clinical implications for disease outcome and diagnostic risk-stratification of t(4;11)+ infant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.The human fetal material was provided by the Joint MRC/Wellcome Trust (grant# MR/R006237/1) Human Developmental Biology Resource (http://hdbr.org). This work was supported by the European Research Council (CoG-2014-646903 to PM; and StG-2014-637904 to IV), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SAF-SAF2013-43065 to PM and SAF2016-76758-R to IV), the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC-CI-2015), FERO Foundation, and the ISCIII (PI14-01191) to CB. PM/IV also acknowledge financial support from The Obra Social La Caixa-Fundaciò Josep Carreras, The Inocente Inocente Foundation, Fundación Ramón Areces and The Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR330). IR was supported by a Programme Grant from Bloodwise (LLR 13001). PM is an investigator of the Spanish Cell Therapy cooperative network (TERCEL). AR was supported by a Clinician Scientist Fellowship from Bloodwise (14041