Tumor microenvironment-mediated immune profiles and efficacy of platinum doublet chemotherapy plus ICIs stratified by DLL3 expression in small cell lung cancer.

Authors

null

Masayuki Shirasawa

Department of Thoracic Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Masayuki Shirasawa , Tatsuya Yoshida , Kouya Shiraishi , Shigehiro Yagishita , Yuji Matsumoto , Ken Masuda , Yuki Shinno , Yusuke Okuma , Yasushi Goto , Hidehito Horinouchi , Katsuhiko Naoki , Takaaki Tsuchida , Ryuji Hamamoto , Noboru Yamamoto , Noriko Motoi , Takashi Kohno , Shun-ichi Watanabe , Yuichiro Ohe

Organizations

Department of Thoracic Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, Division of Genome Biology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation, National Cancer Center, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan, National Cancer Center Hospital, Chuo-Ku, Japan, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan, Division of Medical AI Research and Development, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan, Saitama Cancer Center, Saitama, Japan, Department of Thoracic Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Research Funding

Other Foundation
JST AIP-PRISM, Grant Number JPMJCR18Y4, MHLW ICT infrastructure establishment and implementation of artificial intelligence for clinical and medical research program, Grant Number JP21AC5001

Background: Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) frequently expressed in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and has been emerged as a therapeutic target. However, it remains unclear how DLL3 expression status affects tumor microenvironment (TME)-mediated immune profiles and clinical outcomes of platinum doublet chemotherapy plus ICIs in SCLC patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed post-surgical limited-stage (LS)-SCLC, and extensive-stage (ES)-SCLC patients treated with platinum and etoposide (PE) plus anti-PD-L1 antibody. In LS-SCLC cohort, the transcriptome and whole-exome sequencing (WES) analysis were performed to assess the immune profiles, mutation status and neoantigen status. In ES-SCLC cohort, the association between the efficacy of immunochemotherapy and DLL3 expression by transcriptome analysis were evaluated. Results: Fifty-nine and 17 patients were included in the LS- and ES-SCLC cohort, respectively. In LS-SCLC cohort (n = 59), WES analysis revealed that SCLC with DLL3High had a significantly higher number of neoantigens (77 [95% confidence interval [CI] 65-113 ] vs. 48 [95% CI 17-58], p = 0.004), and a significantly higher rate of signature SBS4 associated with smoking (43% [95% CI 28-53] vs. 28% [95% CI 15-36], p = 0.02), although TMB did not differ according to DLL expression (6.6 mut/Mb [95% CI 5.3-9.6] vs. 6.5 mut/Mb [95% CI 5.2-9.9], p = 0.26). The transcriptome analysis in LS-SCLC cohort revealed that SCLC with DLL3High tumors had significantly suppressed immune-related pathways (IFN-γ response, inflammatory response, and TNFα signaling via nfkb), and dendritic cells (DC) function (DC Differentiation, DC Antigen Processing and Presentation, DC Migration). Profiling tumor infiltrating immune cells with CIBERSORT showed that SCLC with DLL3High had significantly lower proportions of T-cells, macrophages, and DCs compared with those with DLL3low. These results suggested that DLL3High tumors suppressed tumor immunity by inhibiting antigen-presenting function. In ES-SCLC cohort (n = 17), the PFS of PE plus anti-PD-L1 antibody in patients with DLL3High was significantly worse than those in patients with DLL3Low (4.1 months [95% CI, 2.0-6.3] vs. 7.4 months [95% CI, 2.5-12.3]; HR 3.78 [95% CI, 1.1-12.5], p = 0.03). Conclusions: SCLC with high DLL3 expression was characterized by resistance to immunochemotherapy due to suppressed tumor immunity, although those tumors had higher neoantigen loads.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2023 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Lung Cancer—Non-Small Cell Local-Regional/Small Cell/Other Thoracic Cancers

Track

Lung Cancer

Sub Track

Small Cell Lung Cancer

Citation

J Clin Oncol 41, 2023 (suppl 16; abstr 8586)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2023.41.16_suppl.8586

Abstract #

8586

Poster Bd #

213

Abstract Disclosures

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