Crosstalk between KIT and FGFR3 Promotes Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Cell Growth and Drug Resistance

Kinase inhibitors such as imatinib have dramatically improved outcomes for GIST patients, but many patients develop resistance to these treatments. While in some patients this event corresponds with mutations in the GIST driver oncogenic kinase KIT, other patients development resistance without KIT mutations. In this study, we address this patient subset in reporting a functional dependence of GIST on the FGF receptor FGFR3 and its crosstalk with KIT in GIST cells. Addition of the FGFR3 ligand FGF2 to GIST cells restored KIT phosphorylation during imatinib treatment, allowing sensitive cells to proliferate in the presence of the drug. FGF2 expression was increased in imatinib-resistant GIST cells, the growth of which was blocked by RNAi-mediated silencing of FGFR3. Moreover, combining KIT and FGFR3 inhibitors synergized to block the growth of imatinib-resistant cells. Signaling crosstalk between KIT and FGFR3 activated the MAPK pathway to promote resistance to imatinib. Clinically, an immunohistochemical analysis of tumor specimens from imatinib-resistant GIST patients revealed a relative increase in FGF2 levels, with a trend towards increased expression in imatinib-naive samples consistent with possible involvement in drug resistance. Our findings provide a mechanistic rationale to evaluate existing FGFR inhibitors and multi-kinase inhibitors that target FGFR3 as promising strategies to improve treatment of GIST patients with de novo or acquired resistance to imatinib.