St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project(PCGP): Whole Genome Sequencing of Childhood Retinoblastoma

Retinoblastoma is a pediatric cancer of the developing retina. All retinoblastomas are believed to initiate with biallelic inactivation of the RB1 gene. To identify subsequent genetic lesions in retinoblastoma, we performed whole genome sequencing of tumor and normal DNA of 4 children with retinoblastoma and one matched orthotopic xenograft. Both alleles of RB1 were inactivated in the tumor samples. 3 of the patients had sporadic retinoblastoma and one patient had inherited retinoblastoma. Overall, there were few single nucleotide changes in coding regions of the genome and some of the tumors had few chromosomal lesions. There were very few new genetic lesions in the xenograft compared to the primary tumor. These data suggest that the genome in retinoblastoma is more stable than previously believed and there are relatively few recurrent genetic lesions in known cancer pathways other than the RB1 pathway.