scholarly journals Atezolizumab and nab-Paclitaxel in Advanced Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Biomarker Evaluation of the IMpassion130 Study

Author(s):  
Leisha A Emens ◽  
Luciana Molinero ◽  
Sherene Loi ◽  
Hope S Rugo ◽  
Andreas Schneeweiss ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Understanding the impact of the tumor immune microenvironment and BRCA-related DNA repair deficiencies on the clinical activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors may help optimize both patient and treatment selection in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC). In this substudy from the phase 3 IMpassion130 trial, immune biomarkers and BRCA alterations were evaluated for association with clinical benefit with atezolizumab (A) + nab-paclitaxel (nP) vs placebo + nP in unresectable locally advanced or mTNBC. Methods Patients were randomized 1:1 to nab-paclitaxel 100 mg/m2 (days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle) + atezolizumab 840 mg every 2 weeks or placebo until progression or toxicity. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated based on programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on immune cells (IC) and tumor cells (TC), intratumoral CD8, stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs), and BRCA1/2 mutations. Results PD-L1 IC+ in either primary or metastatic tumor tissue was linked to PFS and OS benefit with A+nP. PD-L1 IC+ low (26.9%; 243 of 902 patients) and high (13.9%; 125 of 902 patients) populations had improved outcomes that were comparable. Intratumoral CD8 and sTILs positivity were associated with PD-L1 IC+ status; A+nP vs P+nP improved outcomes were observed only in CD8+ and sTIL+ patients who were also PD-L1 IC+. BRCA1/2 mutations (occurring in 14.5% [89 of 612 patients]) were not associated with PD-L1 IC status, and PD-L1 IC+ patients benefited from A+nP regardless of BRCA1/2 mutation status. Conclusions Although A+nP was more efficacious in patients with richer tumor immune microenvironment, clinical benefit was only observed in patients whose tumors were PD-L1 IC+.S

Cell ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 174 (6) ◽  
pp. 1373-1387.e19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leeat Keren ◽  
Marc Bosse ◽  
Diana Marquez ◽  
Roshan Angoshtari ◽  
Samir Jain ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aalok N Patwa ◽  
Rikiya Yamashita ◽  
Jin Long ◽  
Leeat Keren ◽  
Michael Angelo ◽  
...  

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the poorest-prognosis breast cancer subtype, lacks clinically approved biomarkers for patient risk stratification, treatment management, and immunotherapies. Prior literature has shown that interrogation of the tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME) may be a promising approach for the discovery of novel biomarkers that can fill these gaps. Recent developments in high-dimensional tissue imaging technology, such as multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI), provide spatial context to protein expression in the TIME, opening doors for in-depth characterization of cellular processes. We developed a computational pipeline for the robust examination of the TIME using MIBI. We discover that profiling the functional proteins involved in cell-to-cell interactions in the TIME predicts recurrence and overall survival in TNBC. The interactions between CD45RO and Beta Catenin and CD45RO and HLA-DR were the most relevant for patient stratification. We demonstrated the clinical relevance of the immunoregulatory proteins PD-1, PD-L1, IDO, and Lag3 by tying their interactions to recurrence and survival. Multivariate analysis revealed that our methods provide additional prognostic information compared to clinical variables. Our novel computational pipeline produces interpretable results, and is generalizable to other cancer types.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e12109-e12109
Author(s):  
Douglas Kanter Marks ◽  
Robyn Denise Gartrell ◽  
Margueritta El Asmar ◽  
Thomas Hart ◽  
Yan Lu ◽  
...  

e12109 Background: The PAM (PI3K/Akt/mTOR) signaling pathway has been implicated in the oncogenesis of multiple solid malignancies, including breast cancer (BC). Our aim is to characterize the TIM in a series of patients with operable stage I-III BC treated with MK-2206, an allosteric Akt inhibitor within a presurgical trial. In NCT01319539 , patients received 2 doses of MK-2206 with first dose at day -9 and second at day -2 from surgery. Methods: mIHC was performed using immune biomarkers (DAPI, CD3, CD8, CD4, FOXP3, CD68, Pancytokeratin) on full section (4uM) tissue slides from core biopsy specimens and postsurgical specimens of 10 patients - 5 treated with MK-2206, 5 paired controls. Images were taken using Vectra, a novel pathology workstation and analyzed using inForm software to perform cell classification and phenotyping. T- tests were used to compare biomarker changes before and after MK-2206. Results: Our preliminary analysis demonstrates that patients treated with MK-2206 exhibited an increase in median cytotoxic T-cells (CD3CD8+) density, as compared to the control population , which was statistically significant (87% vs.0.2%, p < 0.05). We did not identify a change in macrophage (CD68) or T helper/T reg (CD4/CD4FOXP3+) density following MK-2206 treatment in this small cohort. We are currently expanding our myeloid panel as well as performing additional tissue analysis to validate our findings. As data is exploratory no correction was made for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are both prognostic of overall survival as well as predictive of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in BC. At present, there are currently both FDA approved therapies, as well as agents in clinical development that exert antineoplastic activity through the PAM pathway. Investigations that endeavour to understand the impact of these therapies on the tumor immune microenvironment may lead to both an increased understanding of the bioactivity of these agents and potentially identify aspects of the immune response which can be exploited in future therapeutics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aalok Patwa ◽  
Rikiya Yamashita ◽  
Jin Long ◽  
Tyler Risom ◽  
Michael Angelo ◽  
...  

AbstractTriple-negative breast cancer, the poorest-prognosis breast cancer subtype, lacks clinically approved biomarkers for patient risk stratification and treatment management. Prior literature has shown that interrogation of the tumor-immune microenvironment may be a promising approach to fill these gaps. Recently developed high-dimensional tissue imaging technology, such as multiplexed ion beam imaging, provide spatial context to protein expression in the microenvironment, allowing in-depth characterization of cellular processes. We demonstrate that profiling the functional proteins involved in cell-to-cell interactions in the microenvironment can predict recurrence and overall survival. We highlight the immunological relevance of the immunoregulatory proteins PD-1, PD-L1, IDO, and Lag3 by tying interactions involving them to recurrence and survival. Multivariate analysis reveals that our methods provide additional prognostic information compared to clinical variables. In this work, we present a computational pipeline for the examination of the tumor-immune microenvironment using multiplexed ion beam imaging that produces interpretable results, and is generalizable to other cancer types.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 564-564
Author(s):  
Kim Blenman ◽  
Michal Marczyk ◽  
Tao Qing ◽  
Tess O'Meara ◽  
Vesal Yaghoobi ◽  
...  

564 Background: What tumor biological differences, if any, contribute to the higher incidence and worse prognosis of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in African American (AA) compared to NonAA patients are unknown. We hypothesized that differences in the tumor immune microenvironment may contribute to the outcome disparities. The purpose of this study was to characterize and compare the immune microenvironment of TNBC between patients self-identified as NonAA or AA. Methods: Formalin fixed paraffin embedded surgically resected cancer and paired normal tissues collected before any systemic therapy and the corresponding clinical data were collected for NonAA (n = 56) and AA (n = 54) stage I-III TNBC treated at Yale Cancer Center between 2000-2017. The two cohorts were matched for clinical stage, age of diagnosis, and year of diagnosis. We performed somatic and germline whole exome sequencing (WES), bulk RNA sequencing, and immunohistochemistry to assess PD-L1 expression (SP142). Stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) were assessed on H&E slides. Mutation load, mutation frequencies, and gene expression differences were compared at gene and pathway level. Immune cell composition was estimated through gene expression deconvolution analyses (TIDE). Results: Tumor mutational burden was similar between the two cohorts. At gene level, few genes had significantly different somatic mutation frequencies, or differential mRNA expression between AA and NonAA samples. Pathway level alterations showed inflammation, immunity (adaptive; innate), antigen presentation, and allograft rejection pathways were more affected by somatic mutations in AA samples. The affected genes differed from cancer to cancer and were not recurrent and therefore were missed at gene level analysis. Gene set enrichment and co-expression analysis also showed higher immune related pathway expression in AA samples. Unsupervised co-expression cluster analysis confirmed coordinated overexpression of genes involved in immunity, inflammation, and cytokine/chemokine signaling in AA patients. Two immunotherapy response predictive signatures, immune inflamed and the IFNG as well as sTILs score and PD-L1 positivity were also higher in AA samples. These findings raise the possibility that immune checkpoint inhibitors might be particularly effective in AA patients. In NonAA samples, the EMT transition, angiogenesis, adipogenesis, myogenesis, fatty acid metabolism, TGFβ signaling, UV-response, and hypoxia pathways were overexpressed. TIDE analysis suggested higher levels of TAM M2, overall TIDE score, and the Immune Exclusion score in NonAA samples. Conclusions: TNBC in AA patients more frequently harbor somatic mutations in genes involved with immune functions and overexpress immune and inflammatory genes compared to NonAA patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masanori Oshi ◽  
Yoshihisa Tokumaru ◽  
Fernando A. Angarita ◽  
Lan Lee ◽  
Li Yan ◽  
...  

AbstractCancer-associated adipocytes are known to cause inflammation; however, the role of adipogenesis, the formation of adipocytes, in breast cancer is unclear. We hypothesized that intra-tumoral adipogenesis reflects a different cancer biology than abundance of intra-tumoral adipocytes. The Molecular Signatures Database Hallmark adipogenesis gene set of gene set variant analysis was used to quantify adipogenesis. Total of 5,098 breast cancer patients in multiple cohorts (training; GSE96058 (n = 3273), validation; TCGA (n = 1069), treatment response; GSE25066 (n = 508) and GSE20194 (n = 248)) were analyzed. Adipogenesis did not correlate with abundance of adipocytes. Adipogenesis was significantly lower in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Elevated adipogenesis was significantly associated with worse survival in TNBC, but not in the other subtypes. High adipogenesis TNBC was significantly associated with low homologous recombination deficiency, but not with mutation load. High adipogenesis TNBC enriched metabolism-related gene sets, but neither of cell proliferation- nor inflammation-related gene sets, which were enriched to adipocytes. High adipogenesis TNBC was infiltrated with low CD8+ T cells and high M2 macrophages. Although adipogenesis was not associated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy response, high adipogenesis TNBC was significantly associated with low expression of PD-L1 and PD-L2 genes, and immune checkpoint molecules index. In conclusion, adipogenesis in TNBC was associated with cancer metabolism and unfavorable tumor immune microenvironment, which is different from abundance of adipocytes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aalok Patwa ◽  
Rikiya Yamashita ◽  
Jin Long ◽  
Leeat Keren ◽  
Michael R. Angelo ◽  
...  

Abstract Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the poorest-prognosis breast cancer subtype, lacks clinically approved biomarkers for patient risk stratification, treatment management, and immunotherapies. Prior literature has shown that interrogation of the tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME) may be a promising approach for the discovery of novel biomarkers that can fill these gaps. Recent developments in high-dimensional tissue imaging technology, such as multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI), provide spatial context to protein expression in the TIME, opening doors for in-depth characterization of cellular processes. We developed a computational pipeline for the robust examination of the TIME using MIBI. We discover that profiling the functional proteins involved in cell-to-cell interactions in the TIME predicts recurrence and overall survival in TNBC. The interactions between CD45RO and Beta Catenin and CD45RO and HLA-DR were the most relevant for patient stratification. We demonstrated the clinical relevance of the immunoregulatory proteins PD-1, PD-L1, IDO, and Lag3 by tying their interactions to recurrence and survival. Multivariate analysis revealed that our methods provide additional prognostic information compared to clinical variables. Our novel computational pipeline produces interpretable results, and is generalizable to other cancer types.


Author(s):  
Zhidong Huang ◽  
Junfan Pan ◽  
Helin Wang ◽  
Xianqiang Du ◽  
Yusheng Xu ◽  
...  

PurposeThe m5C RNA methylation regulators are closely related to tumor proliferation, occurrence, and metastasis. This study aimed to investigate the gene expression, clinicopathological characteristics, and prognostic value of m5C regulators in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and their correlation with the tumor immune microenvironment (TIM).MethodsThe TNBC data, Luminal BC data and HER2 positive BC data set were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus, and 11 m5C RNA methylation regulators were analyzed. Univariate Cox regression and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression models were used to develop a prognostic risk signature. The UALCAN and cBioportal databases were used to analyze the gene characteristics and gene alteration frequency of prognosis-related m5C RNA methylation regulators. Gene set enrichment analysis was used to analyze cellular pathways enriched by prognostic factors. The Tumor Immune Single Cell Hub (TISCH) and Timer online databases were used to explore the relationship between prognosis-related genes and the TIM.ResultsMost of the 11 m5C RNA methylation regulators were differentially expressed in TNBC and normal samples. The prognostic risk signature showed good reliability and an independent prognostic value. Prognosis-related gene mutations were mainly amplified. Concurrently, the NOP2/Sun domain family member 2 (NSUN2) upregulation was closely related to spliceosome, RNA degradation, cell cycle signaling pathways, and RNA polymerase. Meanwhile, NSUN6 downregulation was related to extracellular matrix receptor interaction, metabolism, and cell adhesion. Analysis of the TISCH and Timer databases showed that prognosis-related genes affected the TIM, and the subtypes of immune-infiltrating cells differed between NSUN2 and NSUN6.ConclusionRegulatory factors of m5C RNA methylation can predict the clinical prognostic risk of TNBC patients and affect tumor development and the TIM. Thus, they have the potential to be a novel prognostic marker of TNBC, providing clues for understanding the RNA epigenetic modification of TNBC.


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