Background: Polymerase epsilon (POLE) is a major replicative DNA polymerase. Somatic POLE pathogenic variants (PV) are prevalent in endometrial cancer (EC) and in germline predispose to colorectal cancer (CRC), EC, and possibly other cancers (CA). PVs in the exonuclease domain (ExoD) [amino acid (AA) 268-471] lead to CAs with exceptionally high TMB. PV and uncertain variants (VUS) outside ExoD are sometimes concurrent with an ExoD PV and/or MSI. We hypothesized that the presence of non-ExoD variants may further increase POLE-associated mutation rate and tumor mutational burden. Methods: We retrospectively examined 1870 CRC and 4481 EC genomic profiles conducted by Caris Life Sciences (6/2016-6/2019). All patients had a 592-targeted gene somatic panel. Profiles with a POLE variant (PV or VUS) were analyzed. Median TMB (TMB, in mutations/megabase) was dichotomized to low/intermed ( < 17) vs high (>17). Tumors were grouped by: single ExoD PV, ExoD PV plus another variant (PV or VUS), or no ExoD PV. Known CRC/EC ExoD PV drivers were identified (Campbell et al, Cell 2017): D275G, P286R, S297F/Y, F367C/L/V, V411L, L424F, P436R/S/Y, M444K/L, A456P, S459F/Y, S461L/P, A465V. Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests were used. Results: Overall 4.5% CRC (80/1870) and 6.5% EC (303/4481) samples had POLE variants (Table). High TMB was seen in 56.3% CRC and 53.3% EC. In both CRC/ECs, TMB was higher in tumors with an ExoD PV and a 2^nd variant compared to those with a solitary ExoD PV or no ExoD PV (both p < 0.001). MSI was more prevalent in CRC and EC with high TMB but no ExoD PV vs those with either high TMB and an ExoD PV, or low/intermed TMB and no ExoD PV (both p < 0.001). In both CRC/ECs, several ExoD PV associated with very high TMB when non-ExoD regions of POLE contained recurrent variant clusters: AA 1906 (TMB 225); AA 1826-7 (TMB 243); AA 1380-2 (TMB 229). Conclusions: In CRC/ECs, POLE ExoD PV and MSI appear to drive TMB in distinct and largely non-overlapping ways. Non-ExoD POLE variants may synergize with ExoD PVs to further increase mutation rates.

251[ref] *p < 0.001; 243[ref] ^#p < 0.001 A[ref] ^%p < 0.001; B[ref] ^p < 0.001