TY - JOUR AU - Tawk, Bouchra AU - Wirkner, Ute AU - Schwager, Christian AU - Rein, Katrin AU - Zaoui, Karim AU - Federspil, Philippe A AU - Adeberg, Sebastian AU - Linge, Annett AU - Ganswindt, Ute AU - Hess, Julia AU - Unger, Kristian AU - Tinhofer, Ingeborg AU - Budach, Volker AU - Lohaus, Fabian AU - Krause, Mechthild AU - Guberina, Maja AU - Stuschke, Martin AU - Balermpas, Panagiotis AU - Rödel, Claus AU - Grosu, Anca L AU - Schäfer, Henning AU - Zips, Daniel AU - Combs, Stephanie E AU - Pigorsch, Steffi AU - Zitzelsberger, Horst AU - Baumeister, Philipp AU - Kirchner, Thomas AU - Bewerunge-Hudler, Melanie AU - Weichert, Wilko AU - Hess, Jochen AU - Herpel, Esther AU - Belka, Claus AU - Baumann, Michael AU - Debus, Jürgen AU - Abdollahi, Amir TI - Tumor DNA-Methylome derived Epigenetic Fingerprint Identifies HPV-negative Head and Neck Patients at Risk for Locoregional Recurrence after Postoperative Radiochemotherapy. JO - International journal of cancer VL - 150 IS - 4 SN - 0020-7136 CY - Bognor Regis PB - Wiley-Liss M1 - DKFZ-2021-02262 SP - 603-616 PY - 2022 N1 - #EA:E210#LA:E210# / 2022 Feb 15;150(4):603-616 AB - Biomarkers with relevance for loco-regional therapy are needed in Human Papillomavirus negative aka HPV(-) Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC). Based on the premise that DNA methylation pattern is highly conserved, we sought to develop a reliable and robust methylome-based classifier identifying HPV(-) HNSCC patients at risk for loco-regional recurrence (LR) and all-event progression after postoperative radiochemotherapy (PORT-C). The training cohort consisted of HPVDNA negative HNSCC patients (n=128) homogeneously treated with PORT-C in frame of the German Cancer Consortium - Radiation Oncology Group (DKTK-ROG) multicenter biomarker trial. DNA Methylation analysis was performed using Illumina 450K and 850K-EPIC microarray technology. The performance of the classifier was integrated with a series of biomarkers studied in training set, namely hypoxia-, 5-microRNA (5-miR)-, stem-cell gene-expression signatures and immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based immunological characterization of tumors (CD3/CD8/PD-L1/PD1). Validation occurred in an independent cohort of HPV(-) HNSCC patients, pooled from two German centers (n=125). We identified a 38-methylation probe-based HPV(-) Independent Classifier of disease Recurrence (HICR) with high prognostic value for LR, distant metastases and overall survival (p<10-9 ). HICR remained significant after multivariate analysis adjusting for anatomical site, lymph node extracapsular extension (ECE) and size (T-stage). HICR high-risk tumors were enriched for younger patients with hypoxic tumors (15-gene signature) and elevated 5-miR score. After adjustment for hypoxia and 5-miR covariates, HICR maintained predicting all endpoints. HICR provides a novel mean for assessing the risk of LR in HPV(-) HNSCC patients treated with PORT-C and opens a new opportunity for biomarker-assisted stratification and therapy adaptation in these patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. KW - DNA Methylation (Other) KW - Disease Recurrence (Other) KW - Head and Neck Cancers (Other) KW - Radiotherapy (Other) KW - Stratification (Other) LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:34648658 DO - DOI:10.1002/ijc.33842 UR - https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/177034 ER -