Representative Sequencing: Unbiased Sampling of Solid Tumor Tissue

• Main Authors: Kevin Litchfield, Stacey Stanislaw, Lavinia Spain, Lisa L. Gallegos, Andrew Rowan, Desiree Schnidrig, Heidi Rosenbaum, Alexandre Harle, Lewis Au, Samantha M. Hill, Zayd Tippu, Jennifer Thomas, Lisa Thompson, Hang Xu, Stuart Horswell, Aoune Barhoumi, Carol Jones, Katherine F. Leith, Daniel L. Burgess, Thomas B.K. Watkins, Emilia Lim, Nicolai J. Birkbak, Philippe Lamy, Iver Nordentoft, Lars Dyrskjøt, Lisa Pickering, Stephen Hazell, Mariam Jamal-Hanjani, James Larkin, Charles Swanton, Nelson R. Alexander, Samra Turajlic, Chris Abbosh, Kai-Keen Shiu, John Bridgewater, Daniel Hochhauser, Martin Forster, Siow-Ming Lee, Tanya Ahmad, Dionysis Papadatos-Pastos, Sam Janes, Peter Van Loo, Katey Enfield, Nicholas McGranahan, Ariana Huebner, Sergio Quezada, Stephan Beck, Peter Parker, Henning Walczak, Tariq Enver, Rob Hynds, Mary Falzon, Ian Proctor, Ron Sinclair, Chi-wah Lok, Zoe Rhodes, David Moore, Teresa Marafioti, Elaine Borg, Miriam Mitchison, Reena Khiroya, Giorgia Trevisan, Peter Ellery, Mark Linch, Sebastian Brandner, Crispin Hiley, Selvaraju Veeriah, Maryam Razaq, Heather Shaw, Gert Attard, Mita Afroza Akther, Cristina Naceur-Lombardelli, Lizi Manzano, Maise Al-Bakir, Simranpreet Summan, Nnenna Kanu, Sophie Ward, Uzma Asghar, Faye Gishen, Adrian Tookman, Paddy Stone, Caroline Stirling, Andrew Furness, Kim Edmonds, Nikki Hunter, Sarah Sarker, Sarah Vaughan, Mary Mangwende, Karla Pearce, Scott Shepherd, Haixi Yan, Ben Shum, Eleanor Carlyle, Steve Hazell, Annika Fendler, Fiona Byrne, Nadia Yousaf, Sanjay Popat, Olivia Curtis, Gordon Stamp, Antonia Toncheva, Emma Nye, Aida Murra, Justine Korteweg, Nahid Sheikh, Debra Josephs, Ashish Chandra, James Spicer, Ula Mahadeva, Anna Green, Ruby Stewart, Lara-Rose Iredale, Tina Mackay, Ben Deakin, Debra Enting, Sarah Rudman, Sharmistha Ghosh, Lena Karapagniotou, Elias Pintus, Andrew Tutt, Sarah Howlett, Vasiliki Michalarea, James Brenton, Carlos Caldas, Rebecca Fitzgerald, Merche Jimenez-Linan, Elena Provenzano, Alison Cluroe, Grant Stewart, Colin Watts, Richard Gilbertson, Ultan McDermott, Simon Tavare, Emma Beddowes, Patricia Roxburgh, Andrew Biankin, Anthony Chalmers, Sioban Fraser, Karin Oien, Andrew Kidd, Kevin Blyth, Matt Krebs, Fiona Blackhall, Yvonne Summers, Caroline Dive, Richard Marais, Fabio Gomes, Mat Carter, Jo Dransfield, John Le Quesne, Dean Fennell, Jacqui Shaw, Babu Naidu, Shobhit Baijal, Bruce Tanchel, Gerald Langman, Andrew Robinson, Martin Collard, Peter Cockcroft, Charlotte Ferris, Hollie Bancroft, Amy Kerr, Gary Middleton, Joanne Webb, Salma Kadiri, Peter Colloby, Bernard Olisemeke, Rodelaine Wilson, Ian Tomlinson, Sanjay Jogai, Christian Ottensmeier, David Harrison, Massimo Loda, Adrienne Flanagan, Mairead McKenzie, Allan Hackshaw, Jonathan Ledermann, Abby Sharp, Laura Farrelly, Hayley Bridger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-05-01
• Series: Cell Reports
• Subjects: tumor sampling; tumor sequencing; representative sampling; molecular profiling; tumor hetereogeneity; biomarkers
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124720304605

Summary: Although thousands of solid tumors have been sequenced to date, a fundamental under-sampling bias is inherent in current methodologies. This is caused by a tissue sample input of fixed dimensions (e.g., 6 mm biopsy), which becomes grossly under-powered as tumor volume scales. Here, we demonstrate representative sequencing (Rep-Seq) as a new method to achieve unbiased tumor tissue sampling. Rep-Seq uses fixed residual tumor material, which is homogenized and subjected to next-generation sequencing. Analysis of intratumor tumor mutation burden (TMB) variability shows a high level of misclassification using current single-biopsy methods, with 20% of lung and 52% of bladder tumors having at least one biopsy with high TMB but low clonal TMB overall. Misclassification rates by contrast are reduced to 2% (lung) and 4% (bladder) when a more representative sampling methodology is used. Rep-Seq offers an improved sampling protocol for tumor profiling, with significant potential for improved clinical utility and more accurate deconvolution of clonal structure.