TP53 Abnormality in Myelodysplastic Syndrome

TP53 (tumor suppressor gene P53), one of the most important tumor suppressor genes, plays an important role in cell cycle arrest, cell senescence, apoptosis, differentiation and metabolism. The TP53 gene is located on 17p13.1, its encoded product is the transcription factor P53 protein, which is known as the "the guardian of the genome". Alterations of TP53 include mutations and deletions and are generally associated with advanced stages of disease, insufficient therapy-response and poor prognosis.

The main purpose of our study was to comprehensively analyze the TP53 mutation and 17p deletion in MDS in our single center. To better understand the relationship between TP53 abnormality and clinical phenotype, prognosis, leukemia transformation, therapeutic response of MDS. Next generation sequencing (NGS) method combining with cytogenetics analysis were used, 36 common related AML/MDS/MPN related genes such as TP53, TET2, WT1, ASXL1, U2AF1, RUNX1, etc were covered. According to the 2016 WHO classification and prognosis score system and from June 2011 to June 2017, 88 newly diagnosed MDS patients including 17 MDS-SLD, 32 MDS-MLD,6 MDS-RS,19 MDS-EB-1,11 MDS-EB-2 and 2 MDS-U, 1 5q- syndrome were enrolled. TP53 mutation/deletions were found in twenty-two (25%) of the 88 newly diagnosed MDS patients, among them,7 MDS-SLD, 4 MDS-MLD, 2 MDS-RS, 1 5q-, 6 MDS-EB-1 and 6 MDS-EB-2. TP53 mutation/deletions cases had a higher proportion of bone marrow blasts compared with TP53 negative cases (P=0.009), At the same time, TP53 positive were highly correlated with MDS-EB-2 subtype (P=0.025), complex karyotype (P<0.001). Based on a median follow-up time of 21(1-267) months in all pts, 13 patients (14.8%) progressed to AML and pts with TP53 mutation/deletions tended to progress to AML (P=0.056) with a shorter OS (P=0.005) and PFS (P=0.001). NGS data of accompanying mutation in other classical leukemia genes shown that compound TP53 and U2AF1 mutations were significantly associated with disease progression. For TP53 mutation/deletion group (n=22), we further sequenced the TP53 status at multiple time point of pre and after DAC treatment, results shown that all patients had persistent TP53 positive status before and after treatment.

In conclusion, our results indicate that in MDS TP53 mutation/deletions is highly correlated with MDS-EB-2 subtype, IPSS high-risk group, and complex karyotype. TP53 mutations that occur in the early stages of MDS may contribute to disease progression and leukemia transformation in conjunction with other molecular abnormalities. DAC improves outcomes in patients with TP53 mutation/deletion but may not clear TP53 mutations.