EWS-WT1 fusion isoforms establish oncogenic programs and therapeutic vulnerabilities in Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumors

Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor (DSRCT) is an aggressive mesenchymal tumor driven by fusions between the disordered domain of the Ewing sarcoma RNA binding protein 1 (EWSR1) and the developmental transcription factor Wilms tumor 1 (WT1). We used genome-wide chromatin profiling to identify EWSR1-WT1-dependent gene regulatory networks and target genes. Our studies show that EWS-WT1 is a powerful activator of distal regulatory elements and controls an oncogenic gene expression program that characterizes primary DSRCTs. ChIP-seq profiles for histone marks in primary DSRCT samples are available through dbGaP.