Genetic alterations of KRAS and TP53 in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma associated with poor prognosis

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate certain genetic features of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICCA). A total of 12 eligible ICCA patients were enrolled, and tumor tissues from the patients were subjected to next-generation sequencing of a multi-genes panel. Tumor mutation burden (TMB), mutated genes, copy number variants (CNVs), and pathway enrichment analysis were performed. The median TMB was 2.76 Mutation/Mb (range, 0–36.62 Mutation/Mb) in ICCA patients. The top two most commonly mutated genes in ICCA were KRAS (33%) and TP53 (25%). The co-mutations of KRAS and TP53 were 16.7% (2/12) in ICCA patients. Notably, patient P6 with the highest TMB did not have KRAS and TP53 mutations. Additionally, TP53 and/or KRAS alterations were significantly associated with poor progression-free survival than those with wild type (1.4 months vs 18 months). DNA damage repair and homologs recombinant repair deficiencies were significantly associated with high TMB in ICCA cases. In conclusion, we found that certain genetic mutations of TP53 and KRAS could predict poor prognosis in ICCA patients.