Genomic and Immunophenotypic Landscape of Acquired Resistance to PD-(L)1 Blockade in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
Authors
Abstract

PURPOSE: Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have extended survival in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), acquired resistance (AR) to ICI frequently develops after an initial benefit. However, the mechanisms of AR to ICI in NSCLC are largely unknown.METHODS: Comprehensive tumor genomic profiling, machine learning-based assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, multiplexed immunofluorescence, and/or HLA-I immunohistochemistry (IHC) were performed on matched pre- and post-ICI tumor biopsies from patients with NSCLC treated with ICI at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who developed AR to ICI. Two additional cohorts of patients with intervening chemotherapy or targeted therapies between biopsies were included as controls.RESULTS: We performed comprehensive genomic profiling and immunophenotypic characterization on samples from 82 patients with NSCLC and matched pre- and post-ICI biopsies and compared findings with a control cohort of patients with non-ICI intervening therapies between biopsies (chemotherapy, N = 32; targeted therapies, N = 89; both, N = 17). Putative resistance mutations were identified in 27.8% of immunotherapy-treated cases and included acquired loss-of-function mutations in , , , , , and /; these acquired alterations were not observed in the control groups. Immunophenotyping of matched pre- and post-ICI samples demonstrated significant decreases in intratumoral lymphocytes, CD3e and CD8a T cells, and PD-L1-PD1 engagement, as well as increased distance between tumor cells and CD8PD-1 T cells. There was a significant decrease in HLA class I expression in the immunotherapy cohort at the time of AR compared with the chemotherapy ( = .005) and the targeted therapy ( = .01) cohorts.CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the genomic and immunophenotypic heterogeneity of ICI resistance in NSCLC, which will need to be considered when developing novel therapeutic strategies aimed at overcoming resistance.

Year of Publication
2024
Journal
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
Pages
JCO2300580
Date Published
01/2024
ISSN
1527-7755
DOI
10.1200/JCO.23.00580
PubMed ID
38207230
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