Risk Assessment With Ultra-Low-Pass Whole-Genome Sequencing of Cell-Free DNA for Large B-Cell Lymphoma.

Abstract

Although deep targeted DNA sequencing of liquid biopsies has shown prognostic utility in large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL), the routine clinical adoption of these assays remains limited because of their high costs. Here, leveraging a well-annotated cohort encompassing both frontline and relapsed/refractory (R/R) LBCL, we profiled patient plasma samples with two complementary modalities-ultra-low-pass whole-genome sequencing (ULP-WGS) and deep targeted DNA sequencing, the former being a cost-effective method to profile large scale chromosomal abnormalities and estimate tumor burden. Our findings revealed a strong association of high cell-free tumor burden by both genomic profiling modalities with established measures of tumor burden and patient survival. Notably, the associations with survival remained statistically significant after accounting for international prognostic index scoring. Furthermore, we showed that del(17p) in circulating tumor DNA as detected by ULP-WGS was strongly associated with <i>TP53</i> mutation status and predicted for significantly inferior outcome in frontline LBCL patients but not in patients with R/R LBCL. Our study demonstrates that ULP-WGS can provide robust prognostic biomarkers for both frontline and R/R LBCL, highlighting its broad applicability for risk stratification.