Post-zygotic mosaicism of SMARCB1 variants in patients with rhabdoid tumors: a not so rare condition exposing to successive tumors.

Background: Rhabdoid tumors (RT) are aggressive, rare tumors predominantly affecting young children, characterized by bi-allelic SMARCB1 gene inactivation. While most SMARCB1 alterations are acquired de novo, a third of cases exhibit germline alterations, defining Rhabdoid Tumors Predisposition Syndrome (RTPS1). With increased sensitivity of next-generation sequencing (NGS), mosaicisms in genes linked to genetic diseases are more detectable. This study focuses on exploring SMARCB1 germline alterations, notably mosaicism in blood samples of children with RT and in parents, using a custom NGS panel.

Methods: A cohort of 280 children and 140 parents with germline analysis was studied. Germline DNA from 111 children with RT and 32 parents were re-analyzed with a custom NGS panel with 1,500X average depth targeting the SMARCB1 gene to identify intragenic variants not detected with conventional low-sensitivity methods. Follow-up data was obtained for 77 patients.

Results: Nine previously undetected mosaicism cases were identified, totaling 17/280 patients with a mosaic variant (6.1%) in the cohort, with variant allele frequencies between 0.9% and 33%, thus highlighting the prior underestimation of its prevalence. Follow-up data showed that 4 out of 7 survivors with mosaic variants developed distinct novel tumors, two sharing SMARCB1 alterations with the initial tumor, emphasizing the potential clinical impact of SMARCB1 mosaicism.

Conclusions: The hitherto underestimated rate of SMARCB1 mosaicism in RT underscores the need for optimized genetic counseling and oncological monitoring. The findings have significant medical implications, considering the dire prognosis of RT.