Effect of TCHL-based therapy on immune cell content in on-treatment, neoadjuvant-treated HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

Authors

null

Niamh M. Keegan

St. James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Niamh M. Keegan , Sinead Toomey , Joanna Fay , Stephen F. Madden , Bruce Moran , Malgorzata Milewska , Sudipto Das , Darran O'Connor , M. John Kennedy , Colm Power , Arnold D. Hill , Keith Egan , Ausra Teiserskiene , Elaine Kay , John Crown , Alex J Eustace , Bryan Hennessy

Organizations

St. James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, Department of Molecular Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Pathology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Population Health Sciences, Department of Psychology, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland, OncoMark Limited, Dublin, Ireland, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Department of Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, ICORG, Dublin, Ireland, LRCP and SI MB BCh NUI, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, Beaumont Hospital, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Department of Medical Oncology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Cancer Trials Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Department of Pathology, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, Irish Cooperative Oncology Research Group, Dublin, Ireland, Medical Oncology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Department of Medical Oncology, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Research Funding

Other Foundation

Background: In the TCHL trial (NCT01485926) 78 women with HER2-positive breast cancer (BC) underwent neo-adjuvant treatment with either TCH (Docetaxel, Carboplatin, Trastuzumab) or TCHL (TCH + Lapatinib) therapy. Of the 78 patients, 24 consented to an optional on-treatment biopsy 20 days after 1 cycle of therapy. We analysed the impact of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) on pathological complete response (pCR) and also determined the impact of TCH/TCHL therapy on immune cell modulation after 20 days of treatment. Methods: We assessed TIL and stromal lymphocytes (SL) counts using immunohistochemical staining with Haemotoxalyin+Eosin, AE1/AE3 and CD45 in formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) baseline biopsy samples and in fresh frozen (FF) biopsies taken 20-days post cycle 1 (Day-20) of TCH/TCHL. RNA libraries were generated, using the Truseq mRNA library prep kit on the Neoprep platform and sequenced on the NextSeq 500. We measured the transcriptomic profile of 8 pre and on-treatment sample pairs and then used the Microenvironment Cell Populations (MCP)-counter method to measure the abundance of 10 immune cell populations (T cells, CD8 T cells, cytotoxic lymphocytes, NK cells, B lineage, myeloid dendritic cells, neutrophils, endothelial cells and fibroblasts). Results: We found that higher baseline levels of TILs (p = 0.045) but not SL were associated with an increased likelihood of a patient achieving a pCR to TCH/L based therapy. We found in day 20 on-treatment biopsies of women that subsequently went onto have a pCR that levels of SLs but not TILs were significantly higher (p = 0.049) than in those women who did not have a pCR. Finally we found significant increases in the level of monocytes (p = 0.05) and fibroblasts (p = 0.01), but not other immune cell populations, in the day 20 on-treatment biopsies in comparison with the mutated pre-treatment biopsies. Conclusions: In our study baseline TILs but not SLs have a predictive role in the likelihood of a patient achieving a pCR. We also found that TCHL based therapy significantly altered both monocytes and fibroblasts, indicating a possible role for these immune subtypes in response to TCHL therapy.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2017 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Breast Cancer—Local/Regional/Adjuvant

Track

Breast Cancer

Sub Track

Neoadjuvant Therapy

Citation

J Clin Oncol 35, 2017 (suppl; abstr 583)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2017.35.15_suppl.583

Abstract #

583

Poster Bd #

183

Abstract Disclosures