Deep Sequencing of T-cell Receptor DNA as a Biomarker of Clonally Expanded TILs in Breast Cancer after Immunotherapy.

TitleDeep Sequencing of T-cell Receptor DNA as a Biomarker of Clonally Expanded TILs in Breast Cancer after Immunotherapy.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsPage DB, Yuan J, Redmond D, Y Wen H, Durack JC, Emerson R, Solomon S, Dong Z, Wong P, Comstock C, Diab A, Sung J, Maybody M, Morris E, Brogi E, Morrow M, Sacchini V, Elemento O, Robins H, Patil S, Allison JP, Wolchok JD, Hudis C, Norton L, McArthur HL
JournalCancer Immunol Res
Volume4
Issue10
Pagination835-844
Date Published2016 10
ISSN2326-6074
KeywordsAntineoplastic Agents, Immunological, Biomarkers, Tumor, Biopsy, Breast Neoplasms, Combined Modality Therapy, Cryosurgery, DNA, Neoplasm, Feasibility Studies, Female, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Humans, Immunotherapy, Ipilimumab, Leukemic Infiltration, Lymphocyte Count, Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating, Mastectomy, Neoplasm Staging, Pilot Projects, Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta, Sequence Analysis, DNA
Abstract

In early-stage breast cancer, the degree of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) predicts response to chemotherapy and overall survival. Combination immunotherapy with immune checkpoint antibody plus tumor cryoablation can induce lymphocytic infiltrates and improve survival in mice. We used T-cell receptor (TCR) DNA sequencing to evaluate both the effect of cryoimmunotherapy in humans and the feasibility of TCR sequencing in early-stage breast cancer. In a pilot clinical trial, 18 women with early-stage breast cancer were treated preoperatively with cryoablation, single-dose anti-CTLA-4 (ipilimumab), or cryoablation + ipilimumab. TCRs within serially collected peripheral blood and tumor tissue were sequenced. In baseline tumor tissues, T-cell density as measured by TCR sequencing correlated with TIL scores obtained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. However, tumors with little or no lymphocytes by H&E contained up to 3.6 × 10 TCR DNA sequences, highlighting the sensitivity of the ImmunoSEQ platform. In this dataset, ipilimumab increased intratumoral T-cell density over time, whereas cryoablation ± ipilimumab diversified and remodeled the intratumoral T-cell clonal repertoire. Compared with monotherapy, cryoablation plus ipilimumab was associated with numerically greater numbers of peripheral blood and intratumoral T-cell clones expanding robustly following therapy. In conclusion, TCR sequencing correlates with H&E lymphocyte scoring and provides additional information on clonal diversity. These findings support further study of the use of TCR sequencing as a biomarker for T-cell responses to therapy and for the study of cryoimmunotherapy in early-stage breast cancer. Cancer Immunol Res; 4(10); 835-44. ©2016 AACR.

DOI10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-16-0013
Alternate JournalCancer Immunol Res
PubMed ID27587469
PubMed Central IDPMC5064839
Grant ListP30 CA008748 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States