Subclonal TP53 mutations are frequent and predict resistance to radioimmunotherapy in follicular lymphoma

Although TP53 is commonly mutated in transformed follicular lymphoma, mutations are reported in <5% of pretreatment follicular lymphoma (FL) specimens. We assayed archival follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma specimens from a completed clinical trial, Southwest Oncology Group S0016, a phase 3 randomized intergroup trial of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, oncovin, and prednisone) chemotherapy plus R-CHOP (rituximab-CHOP) compared with CHOP chemotherapy plus 131-iodine tositumomab (radioimmunotherapy [RIT]-CHOP). Subclonal TP53 mutations (median allele frequency 0.02) were found in 25% of diagnostic FL specimens and in 27% of a separate validation cohort. In the R-CHOP arm, pathogenic TP53 mutations were not associated with progression-free survival (PFS) (10-year PFS 43% vs 44%). In contrast, among patients with no detectable pathogenic TP53 mutation, RIT-CHOP was associated with a longer PFS than with R-CHOP (10-year PFS 67% vs 44%; hazard ratio = 0.49; P = .008). No relationship was detected between PFS and the extent of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AICDA)–mediated heterogeneity. In summary, subclonal TP53 mutations are common in FL and are a distinct phenomenon from AICDA-mediated genetic heterogeneity. The absence of a detectable subclonal mutation in TP53 defined a population that particularly benefited from RIT.