Robbins Y, Friedman J, Redman J, Sievers C, Lassoued W, Gulley JL, Allen CT. Tumor cell HLA class I expression and pathologic response following neoadjuvant immunotherapy for newly diagnosed head and neck cancer.
Oral Oncol 2023;
138:106309. [PMID:
36682187 PMCID:
PMC9974754 DOI:
10.1016/j.oraloncology.2023.106309]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Revised: 12/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
Biomarkers are needed to identify patients likely to respond to neoadjuvant immunotherapy (NIT) prior to receiving definitive treatment.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We hypothesized that expression of tumor cell HLA class I would correlate with pathologic response (PR) following NIT for primary untreated head and neck cancer. Multispectral immunofluorescence of pre- and post-treatment biopsy specimens from a neoadjuvant study of bintrafusp alfa, a dual TGF-β and PD-L1 inhibitor, was performed.
RESULTS
Discordant expression of tumor cell HLA class I and PD-L1 measured by multispectral immunofluorescence was observed with most positive tumor cells expressing HLA class I or PD-L1 but not both. Spatial analysis revealed colocalization between tumor parenchyma T cells and HLA class I positive tumors cells, but no clear colocalization between T cells and PD-L1 positive tumor cells. Greater pre-treatment tumor cell HLA class I expression, but not PD-L1 expression or tumor T cell infiltration, correlated with the development of a PR. Additionally, increased tumor cell HLA class I expression after NIT compared to before NIT correlated with development of a PR, whereas inconsistent changes in PD-L1 and T cell infiltration were observed after treatment in all patients.
CONCLUSIONS
These data provide the rationale for the study of tumor cell HLA class I expression in larger prospective studies powered to determine the performance of biomarkers of PR in newly diagnosed HNSCC patients receiving NIT.
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