Depressed colorectal neoplasm exhibits high malignant potential and shows rapid invasiveness. We investigated the genomic profile of depressed neoplasms and clarified the survival outcome and treatment response of the cancers arising from them. We examined 20 depressed and 13 polypoid neoplasms by genome-wide copy number analysis. Subsequently, we validated the identified copy number alterations (CNAs) in an independent cohort of 37 depressed and 42 polypoid neoplasms. Finally, the CNAs were tested as biomarkers in 530 colorectal cancers (CRCs) to clarify the clinical outcome of depressed neoplasms. CNAs in MYC, CCNA1, and BIRC7 were significantly enriched in depressed neoplasms and designated as the D-marker panel. CRCs with a D-marker panel have significantly shorter progression-free survival compared with those without (p = 0.012), especially in stage I (p = 0.049), stages T1+2 (p = 0.027), and proximal cancers (p = 0.002). The positivity of the D-marker panel was an independent risk factor of cancer progression (hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.52 (1.09-2.11)). Furthermore, the proximal CRCs with D-marker panels had worse overall and progression-free survival when taking oxaliplatin as chemotherapy than those that did not. The D-marker panel may help to optimize treatment and surveillance in proximal CRC and develop a molecular test. However, the current result remains preliminary, and further validation in prospective trials is warranted in the future.
Keywords: BIRC7; CCNA1; CNAs; MYC; chemotherapy; colorectal cancer.