- Byron, Sara A;
- Hendricks, William PD;
- Nagulapally, Abhinav B;
- Kraveka, Jacqueline M;
- Ferguson, William S;
- Brown, Valerie I;
- Eslin, Don E;
- Mitchell, Deanna;
- Cornelius, Albert;
- Roberts, William;
- Isakoff, Michael S;
- Oesterheld, Javier E;
- Wada, Randal K;
- Rawwas, Jawhar;
- Neville, Kathleen;
- Zage, Peter E;
- Harrod, Virginia L;
- Bergendahl, Genevieve;
- VanSickle, Elizabeth;
- Dykema, Karl;
- Bond, Jeffrey;
- Chou, Hsien-Chao;
- Wei, Jun S;
- Wen, Xinyu;
- Reardon, Hue V;
- Roos, Alison;
- Nasser, Sara;
- Izatt, Tyler;
- Enriquez, Daniel;
- Hegde, Apurva M;
- Cisneros, Faith;
- Christofferson, Austin;
- Turner, Bryce;
- Szelinger, Szabolcs;
- Keats, Jonathan J;
- Halperin, Rebecca F;
- Khan, Javed;
- Saulnier Sholler, Giselle L;
- Trent, Jeffrey M
Children with treatment-refractory or relapsed (R/R) tumors face poor prognoses. As the genomic underpinnings driving R/R disease are not well defined, we describe here the genomic and transcriptomic landscapes of R/R solid tumors from 202 patients enrolled in Beat Childhood Cancer Consortium clinical trials. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) was elevated relative to untreated tumors at diagnosis, with one-third of tumors classified as having a pediatric high TMB. Prior chemotherapy exposure influenced the mutational landscape of these R/R tumors, with more than 40% of tumors demonstrating mutational signatures associated with platinum or temozolomide chemotherapy and two tumors showing treatment-associated hypermutation. Immunogenomic profiling found a heterogenous pattern of neoantigen and MHC class I expression and a general absence of immune infiltration. Transcriptional analysis and functional gene set enrichment analysis identified cross-pathology clusters associated with development, immune signaling, and cellular signaling pathways. While the landscapes of these R/R tumors reflected those of their corresponding untreated tumors at diagnosis, important exceptions were observed, suggestive of tumor evolution, treatment resistance mechanisms, and mutagenic etiologies of treatment. SIGNIFICANCE: Tumor heterogeneity, chemotherapy exposure, and tumor evolution contribute to the molecular profiles and increased mutational burden that occur in treatment-refractory and relapsed childhood solid tumors.