Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in Colorectal Cancer—The Role of Cellular Pathology

2021 ◽  
pp. 106689692110258
Author(s):  
Adrian C. Bateman

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignancy with a worldwide distribution. Despite bowel cancer screening programmes, the management of patients with metastatic disease is still an important and challenging problem. Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy is a well-established treatment in several cancers, eg, malignant melanoma and non-small cell lung carcinoma and is used in metastatic disease. The principle of this treatment is to use monoclonal antibodies to block the immune tolerance that commonly develops to tumor cells, therefore allowing host T-cell immunity to recognise and lyse cancer cells. The cellular receptors most commonly targeted by ICI therapy are cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein-4 and the programmed death 1/programmed death ligand 1 system. This review provides a scientific background to current ICI therapy and discusses the factors that predict response to this treatment. This is followed by a description of the emerging evidence for the use of ICI therapy in CRC and the utility of cellular pathology in stratifying patients for this treatment, especially when the systemic disease is present.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 3538-3538
Author(s):  
Ling Zhang ◽  
Jianping Song ◽  
Yiting Wang ◽  
Yaoxu Chen

3538 Background: Lysine Methyltransferase 2C (KMT2C), a member of the myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) family, possesses histone methylation activity and is involved in transcriptional co-activation. Present study has shown that KMT2C is positive correlated with better efficacy of Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) in NSCLC. However, the role of KMT2C in treatment of ICI on colorectal cancer (CRC) is still unknown. Methods: NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) was performed on 1628 CRC patients. TMB of these patients were analyzed. A public accessible cohort (Samstein2018) with data from 130 CRC patients were used to investigate the correlation between KMT2C mutation and efficacy of ICI. WES and survival data of TCGA database (1099 CRC) was used to analyze prognostic effect of KMT2C mutation. Furthermore, CIBERSORT was used to analyze the tumor-infiltrating immune cells present in COAD(colon adenocarcinoma, 404 patients)from TCGA database. Results: Among 1628 CRC patient, 230(14.1%) had KMT2C mutation. TMB was positive correlated with KMT2C mutation (Mut vs. WT, 30.75 vs. 7.26 mut/Mb, p < 0.0001). The Samstein2018 cohort showed that KMT2C mutations (15.4%, 20/130) were significantly associated with better OS (Mut vs. WT, 11.5 vs. 7.5 month, HR = 0.29; 95% CI, 0.1-0.81; P = 0.012), and a higher TMB was also observed in KMT2C-Mut group (p = 1.98e-08). In TCGA, no association between KMT2C mutation and OS was observed (P = 0.23), suggesting that was not prognostic factor. Moreover, we analyzed the relationship between KMT2C mutation and immune cell infiltration through CRC TCGA database. The results showed, in COAD, KMT2C mutation was positively correlated with the abundance of CD8+ T cells (P = 0.0014), B cells (P = 0.014), M1 macrophages (P = 0.015), neutrophil (P = 0.0019) and NK cells (P = 0.043), and negatively correlated with Treg cells (p = 0.0063). Conclusions: KMT2C has an impact on the immune microenvironment and may be used as a potential positive predictor for treatment of ICI on CRC patients. The role of KMT2C in immunotherapy warrant further studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad A Alvi ◽  
Maurice B Loughrey ◽  
Philip Dunne ◽  
Stephen McQuaid ◽  
Richard Turkington ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 9503-9503
Author(s):  
Evan J. Lipson ◽  
Hussein Abdul-Hassan Tawbi ◽  
Dirk Schadendorf ◽  
Paolo Antonio Ascierto ◽  
Luis Matamala ◽  
...  

9503 Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy has revolutionized the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma. However, novel combinations are needed to optimize the benefit-risk profile. Lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3) regulates an immune checkpoint pathway, which inhibits T-cell activity, and is upregulated in many tumor types including melanoma. Relatlimab (RELA), a human IgG4 LAG-3-blocking antibody, restores effector function of exhausted T cells. RELA in combination with nivolumab (NIVO; anti-programmed death [PD]-1) modulates potentially synergistic immune checkpoint pathways and can enhance antitumor immune responses. RELATIVITY-047 is a global, randomized, double-blind, phase II/III study evaluating a novel immune checkpoint inhibitor combination of RELA+NIVO as a fixed-dose combination (FDC) treatment in first-line advanced melanoma. Methods: Patients with previously untreated advanced melanoma were randomized 1:1 to receive RELA 160 mg + NIVO 480 mg FDC intravenously (IV) every 4 weeks (Q4W) or NIVO monotherapy 480 mg IV Q4W, stratified by LAG-3 expression, programmed death ligand 1 expression, BRAF mutation status, and AJCC (v8) M stage. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) per RECIST v1.1 as assessed by blinded independent central review. Secondary endpoints were overall survival and objective response rate. PFS in prespecified subgroups and safety were additional objectives. Results: 714 patients were randomized to RELA+NIVO FDC (n = 355) or NIVO (n = 359). Patient characteristics were well balanced between treatment groups. Median follow-up was 13.2 months. Median PFS in the RELA+NIVO FDC group (10.1 months [95% CI, 6.4–15.7]) was significantly longer than in the NIVO group (4.6 months [95% CI, 3.4–5.6]; hazard ratio, 0.75 [95% CI, 0.6–0.9]; P = 0.0055). PFS rates at 12 months were 47.7% (95% CI, 41.8–53.2) and 36.0% (95% CI, 30.5–41.6) for RELA+NIVO FDC and NIVO, respectively. PFS favored RELA+NIVO FDC across key prespecified subgroups. The incidence of grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) was higher in the RELA+NIVO FDC group (18.9%) versus NIVO (9.7%). There were 3 treatment-related deaths with RELA+NIVO FDC and 2 with NIVO. TRAEs (any grade) led to treatment discontinuation in 14.6% and 6.7% of patients in the RELA+NIVO FDC and NIVO groups, respectively. Conclusions: First-line treatment with RELA+NIVO FDC demonstrated a statistically significant PFS benefit compared to NIVO monotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma. RELA+NIVO FDC was well tolerated with a manageable safety profile and without unexpected safety signals. This is the first phase III study of a novel FDC to demonstrate a clinically meaningful benefit by dual inhibition of the LAG-3 and PD-1 pathways. Clinical trial information: NCT03470922.


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