Correlation of T-cell infiltration and clonality with PD-L1 expression in soft tissue sarcomas.

Authors

Seth Pollack

Seth Pollack

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA

Seth Pollack, Qianchuan He, Jennifer Yearley, Ryan O Emerson, Marissa Vignali, Yuzheng Zhang, Mary Redman, Elizabeth Trice Loggers, Lee D. Cranmer, Venu Gopal Pillarisetty, Robert Ricciotti, Benjamin L Hoch, Erin Murphy, Terrill K McClanahan, Wendy Blumenschein, Steven Matthew Townson, Sharon Benzeno, Stanley R. Riddell, Robin Lewis Jones

Organizations

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, Adaptive Biotechnologies, Seattle, WA, Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, Seattle, WA, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, Seattle, WA, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle, WA, University of Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson, AZ, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Merck Research Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA, Merck, Palo Alto, CA, Merck and Co Inc, Shoreline, WA

Research Funding

NIH

Background: The success of immunotherapy has raised new issues regarding the selection of patients, design of combination strategies, and sequencing of various regimens. Sarcomas have poor outcomes in the metastatic setting but may be amenable to immune therapies. However, we currently have limited knowledge of the immunologic profiles of different soft tissue sarcoma (STS) subtypes. Methods: We identified patients with the relatively common STS subtypes: leiomyosarcoma (LMS), undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS), synovial sarcoma (SS) and liposarcoma. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tumor samples from 81 patients underwent gene expression analysis, immunohistochemistry for PD-1 and PD-L1, and sequencing of the T cell receptor Vβ region. Differences in liposarcoma subsets were also evaluated. Results: UPS and LMS had high expression levels of genes related to antigen presentation and T cell infiltration. UPS had higher levels of PD-L1 (p ≤ 0.001) and PD-1 (p ≤ 0.05) on IHC. UPS also had the highest T cell infiltration based on TCR sequencing, significantly more than SS, which had the lowest (p ≤ 0.05). UPS and LMS both had higher clonality compared with SS and liposarcoma (p ≤ 0.05). A model adjusted for STS histologic subtype found that for all sarcoma T cell infiltration and clonality were highly correlated with PD-1 and PD-L1 staining levels (p ≤ 0.01). Conclusions: In a model adjusted for sarcoma histologic subtypes, T cell infiltration and clonality were highly correlated with PD-1 and PD-L1 expression, consistent with the emerging view of tumor immunity that highly inflamed tumors acquire inhibitory ligands to evade tumor-specific T cells. UPS, which is a more highly mutated STS subtype, provokes a strong immune response evidenced by multiple inflammatory features suggesting that it may be well-suited to checkpoint inhibitor based approaches. SS and liposarcoma subsets are less highly mutated but do express immunogenic self-antigens therefore strategies to improve antigen presentation and T cell infiltration may be valuable for allowing immunotherapeutic success in these tumor types.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2017 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session B

Track

Biomarkers and Inflammatory Signatures,Humoral Immunity for Diagnosis and Therapy,Immune Checkpoints and Stimulatory Receptors,Modulating Innate Immunity,Therapies Targeting T cells

Sub Track

Novel Biomarker Approaches

Citation

J Clin Oncol 35, 2017 (suppl 7S; abstract 23)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2017.35.7_suppl.23

Abstract #

23

Poster Bd #

C6

Abstract Disclosures

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