Incidence, clinicopathologic features, and fusion transcript landscape of translocation renal cell carcinomas

Translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) is a rare subtype of kidney tumour characterized by translocations involving the transcription factor TFE3 or TFEB. tRCC was introduced into the World Health Organization classification in 2004, but much is still unknown about the natural history, clinicopathologic features, and outcomes of the disease. The aim of this study was to describe the landscape of fusion transcript in a large single-institution series of FISH confirmed tRCCs and then to confront it to morphological and clinical data.

Paired-end RNA sequencing was performed within a prospective database of the Department of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire (Lille, France). The diagnosis of tRCC was confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Among a total of 1,130 identified renal cell carcinomas, 21 cases (1.9%) showed rearrangement of the TFE3 (n=20) or TFEB (n=1) gene. Median patient age was 31 years (range 15 to 47), and the female-to-male ratio was 6:1. Five different TFE3 fusion transcripts were identified, the most frequent TFE3 partners were PRCC (n=4) and SFPQ (n=4). The other partners involved were ASPCR1 (n=1) and MED15 (n=1) genes as well as a novel TFE3 partner, GRIPAP1.

We identified a new fusion partner, GRIPAP1. The prognostic role of transcript type could not be determined because our number of cases was too small. Four patients (19%) died of the disease, all of which presented with a lymph node involvement at diagnosis. We confirm that tRCC can be an aggressive tumour, especially those of advanced clinical stage. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Histopathology. 2017 Jan 20 [Epub ahead of print]

Marion Classe, Gabriel G Malouf, Xiaoping Su, Hui Yao, Erika J Thompson, Denaha J Doss, Valérie Grégoire, Julien Lenobin, Jean-Christophe Fantoni, Hélène Sudour-Bonnange, David Khayat, Sébastien Aubert, Nizar M Tannir, Xavier Leroy

Département de Pathologie, Hôpital Lariboisière, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France., Département d'Oncologie Médicale, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Faculté de Médecine Pierre et Marie Curie, Institut Universitaire de Cancérologie GRC5, Université Paris 6, Paris, France., Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA., Department of Genetics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA., Département de Pathologie, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire, Lille, France., Département d'Urologie, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire, Lille, France., Unité d'Oncologie Pédiatrique, Centre Anti Cancéreux Oscar Lambret, Lille, France., Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer.