Clonal evolution during metastatic spread in high-risk neuroblastoma

Abstract

High-risk neuroblastoma is generally metastatic and often lethal. Using genomic profiling of 470 sequential and spatially separated samples from 283 patients, we characterize subtype-specific genetic evolutionary trajectories from diagnosis, through progression and end-stage metastatic disease. Clonal tracing timed disease initiation to embryogenesis. Continuous acquisition of structural variants at disease defining loci (MYCN, TERT, MDM2-CDK4) followed by convergent evolution of mutations targeting shared pathways emerged as the predominant feature of progression. At diagnosis metastatic clones were already established at distant sites where they could stay dormant, only to cause relapses years later and spread via metastasis-to-metastasis and polyclonal seeding after therapy.