Indirect assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte activity in serum for predicting outcome in patients with glioblastoma treated with immunotherapy in the recurrent setting.

Authors

null

Christina Jensen

Biomarkers & Research, Nordic Bioscience, Herlev, Denmark

Christina Jensen , Simone Bendix Maarup , Hans Skovgaard Poulsen , Benedikte Hasselbalch , Morten A. Karsdal , Inge Marie Svane , Ulrik Niels Lassen , Nicholas Willumsen

Organizations

Biomarkers & Research, Nordic Bioscience, Herlev, Denmark, The Brain Tumor Center, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, National Center for Cancer Immune Therapy, CCIT-DK, Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark

Research Funding

Other Foundation

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor and despite efforts in developing new effective therapies, patient survival remains low. There is increasing interest in using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for GBM, however the immunosuppressive (cold tumor) characteristics of GBM limit the efficacy of ICIs. Consequently, there is a need to identify patients with active tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (hot tumor). Several studies have shown that brain extracellular matrix such as type IV collagen has a dynamic composition with protease-induced alterations. In this study, we evaluated the clinical utility of a non-invasive biomarker of granzyme B degraded type IV collagen (C4G) reflecting tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte activity and of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) degraded type IV collagen (C4M) in GBM patients treated with nivolumab (anti-PD-1) and bevacizumab (anti-VEGF) in the recurrent setting. Methods: C4G and C4M were measured in serum from 22 controls and 39 GBM patients previously treated with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the primary setting. After GBM recurrence, 18 patients underwent salvage resection (arm A) however 21 patients had no possibility for resection (arm B). All patients were treated with nivolumab and bevacizumab (NCT03890952 phase II study). Baseline GBM samples were taken before the second-line treatment. The association between C4G levels and outcome was evaluated by Cox regression analysis for overall survival (OS) and odds ratio (OR) calculations for complete response (CR) rate after dichotomizing patients into low vs high levels of C4G (median cutpoint). Results: C4G (p = 0.004), but not C4M (p = 0.166), was significantly elevated in serum from GBM patients compared to controls. Moreover, patients with high C4G levels had a significantly increased likelihood of experiencing CR (OR=6.68, p<0.0001). Furthermore, patients with high C4G experienced improved OS compared to low C4G (HR=0.39), and this remained significant after adjusting for other significant risk factors (treatment arm and MGMT methylation) by multivariate analysis (HR=0.44) (table). Conclusions: A non-invasive biomarker reflecting tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte activity (C4G) has the potential to identify GBM patients responding to nivolumab and bevacizumab in the recurrent setting. In the future, this may provide a non-invasive biomarker tool for stratifying patients with GBM for ICI trials. Clinical trial information: NCT03890952.

Cox regression analysis.
Univariate analysis
HR (95%CI)
P value
Age
0.99 (0.97-1.02)
0.637
Gender
0.50 (0.23-1.09)
0.082
Treatment arm, B vs A
2.23 (1.07-4.67)0.033
LDH
0.99 (0.99-1.01)
0.933
IDH mutation
0.69 (0.28-1.73)
0.429
MGMT methylation
0.31 (0.14-0.68)0.004
C4G, high vs low
0.39 (0.18-0.82)0.013
C4G high adjusted for MGMT and treatment arm by multivariate analysis
0.44 (0.19-0.99)0.048

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2022 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Central Nervous System Tumors

Track

Central Nervous System Tumors

Sub Track

Primary CNS Tumors–Glioma

Clinical Trial Registration Number

NCT03890952

Citation

J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 16; abstr 2059)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2022.40.16_suppl.2059

Abstract #

2059

Poster Bd #

397

Abstract Disclosures