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Chun B, Pucilowska J, Chang S, Kim I, Nikitin B, Koguchi Y, Redmond WL, Bernard B, Rajamanickam V, Polaske N, Fields PA, Conrad V, Schmidt M, Urba WJ, Conlin AK, McArthur HL, Page DB. Changes in T-cell subsets and clonal repertoire during chemoimmunotherapy with pembrolizumab and paclitaxel or capecitabine for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. J Immunother Cancer 2022; 10:jitc-2021-004033. [PMID: 35086949 PMCID: PMC8796261 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2021-004033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Chemoimmunotherapy is a standard treatment for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), however, the impacts of different chemotherapies on T-cell populations, which could correlate with clinical activity, are not known. Quantifying T-cell populations with flow cytometry and T-cell receptor (TCR) immunosequencing may improve our understanding of how chemoimmunotherapy affects T-cell subsets, and to what extent clonal shifts occur during treatment. TCR immunosequencing of intratumoral T cells may facilitate the identification and monitoring of putatively tumor-reactive T-cell clones within the blood. METHODS Blood and tumor biopsies were collected from patients with metastatic TNBC enrolled in a phase Ib clinical trial of first or second-line pembrolizumab with paclitaxel or capecitabine. Using identical biospecimen processing protocols, blood samples from a cohort of patients treated for early-stage breast cancer were obtained for comparison. Treatment-related immunological changes in peripheral blood and intratumoral T cells were characterized using flow cytometry and TCR immunosequencing. Clonal proliferation rates of T cells were compared based on intratumoral enrichment. RESULTS When combined with pembrolizumab, paclitaxel and capecitabine resulted in similar time-dependent lymphodepletions across measured peripheral T-cell subsets. Their effects were more modest than that observed following curative-intent dose-dense anthracycline and cyclophosphamide (ddAC) (average fold-change in CD3+ cells, capecitabine: -0.42, paclitaxel: -0.56, ddAC: -1.21). No differences in T-cell clonality or richness were observed following capecitabine or paclitaxel-based treatments. Regression modeling identified differences in the emergence of novel T-cell clones that were not detected at baseline (odds compared with ddAC, capecitabine: 0.292, paclitaxel: 0.652). Pembrolizumab with paclitaxel or capecitabine expanded T-cell clones within tumors; however, these clones did not always expand within the blood. Proliferation rates within the blood were similar between clones that were enriched and those that were not enriched within tumors. CONCLUSION Chemoimmunotherapy for metastatic TNBC with pembrolizumab and capecitabine or paclitaxel resulted in similar peripheral T-cell subset lymphodepletion without altering T-cell clonal diversity. Regression modeling methods are applicable in immune monitoring studies, such as this to identify the odds of novel T-cell clones emerging during treatment, and proliferation rates of tumor-enriched T-cell clones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brie Chun
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Joanna Pucilowska
- Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - ShuChing Chang
- Medical Data Research Center, Providence St Joseph Health, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Isaac Kim
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Benjamin Nikitin
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Yoshinobu Koguchi
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - William L Redmond
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Brady Bernard
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA.,Computational Immuno-Oncology and Bioinformatics Core, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Venkatesh Rajamanickam
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA.,Computational Immuno-Oncology and Bioinformatics Core, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | | | - Paul A Fields
- Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Valerie Conrad
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Mark Schmidt
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Walter J Urba
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Alison K Conlin
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
| | - Heather L McArthur
- Department of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - David B Page
- Earle A Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
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Nikitin B, Bahorik AL, Mcevoy CT, Yaffe K. Markers of periodontal disease and cognitive decline in a diverse, older cohort. Alzheimers Dement 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/alz.052296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Nikitin
- Yale University New Haven CT USA
- University of California, San Francisco San Francisco CA USA
| | - Amber L Bahorik
- University of California, San Francisco San Francisco CA USA
| | | | - Kristine Yaffe
- University of California, San Francisco San Francisco CA USA
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Chun B, Pucilowska J, Chang SC, Kim I, Nikitin B, Koguchi Y, Redmond W, Bernard B, Rajamanickam V, Polaske N, Fields P, Conrad V, Schmidt M, Urba W, Conlin A, McArthur H, Page D. 94 Effects of chemoimmunotherapy on the peripheral blood: insights from immune monitoring of a phase Ib trial of pembrolizumab and paclitaxel or capecitabine for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). J Immunother Cancer 2021. [DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2021-sitc2021.094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022] Open
Abstract
BackgroundPembrolizumab plus curative-intent dose-dense anthracycline-based chemotherapy (ddAC) is associated with improved outcome in PD-L1-negative TNBC,1 whereas in the metastatic setting, clinical benefit of chemoimmunotherapy (taxane or gemcitabine/carboplatin) is restricted to PD-L1-positive patients.2 We hypothesize that this discordance could be related to immunomodulatory differences of the various chemotherapies. On-treatment serial monitoring of peripheral blood and tumoral T cells can be used to compare the effects of various regimens. We also hypothesize that T cell clonal expansion may differ across the regimens, and that tumor-enriched T cell clones are more likely to be tumor-reactive and expand following chemoimmunotherapy.MethodsBlood and tumor samples were collected from patients enrolled in a phase Ib clinical trial of palliative pembrolizumab and paclitaxel or capecitabine for metastatic TNBC, and from a contemporaneous cohort of patients treated with ddAC. T-cells were characterized using fresh whole blood flow cytometry and T-cell receptor (TCR) immunosequencing (immunoSEQ, Adaptive Biotechnologies) of DNA digests. Longitudinal regression was used to test the hypothesis that tumor-enriched T-cell clonotypes are more likely to expand in peripheral blood following therapy.ResultsWhen combined with pembrolizumab, paclitaxel versus capecitabine had similar effects on T-cells, resulting in a time-dependent lymphodepletion across all major T cell subsets (average CD3+ T cell fold-change capecitabine: -0.42, paclitaxel: -0.56, p = 0.80 t-test), whereas ddAC was associated with more profound lymphodepletion (CD3+ average fold-change: -1.21). Notably, ddAC was associated with higher odds of novel clonotype detection compared to capecitabine (odds ratio (OR): 3.42, 95% CI: 3.34–3.5) as well as compared to paclitaxel (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.47–1.60). Significant expansion of tumoral clonotypes occurred in five patients receiving chemoimmunotherapy (average 4.2 unique clonotypes per patient, range 2–11). These clonotypes did not significantly expand over time in the blood. Similarly, T-cell clonotypes that were enriched within tumor did not exhibit measurable differences in serial trend within the peripheral blood.ConclusionsEffects to T cell subsets and clonotypes are similar between capecitabine and paclitaxel when combined with pembrolizumab. ddAC was more profoundly lymphotoxic, but resulted in greater clonotype expansion. These findings offer mechanistic insight onto the differences in clinical activity observed with chemoimmunotherapy in early stage versus metastatic TNBC. We observed no strong association between tumor clonotype enrichment and peripheral clonotype expansion, highlighting the unmet need to develop methods of monitoring tumor-reactive T cell clones in the context of immunotherapy.AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to acknowledge collaborators at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute and Adaptive Biotechnologies for mentorship and guidance. Support for the clinical trial (NCT02734290), which comprised the metastatic cohort was provided by Merck and the Providence Opportunity Fund. Laboratory services were provided at no cost by Adaptive BiotechnologiesTrial RegistrationNCT02734290ReferencesSchmid P, Cortes J, Pusztai L, et al. Pembrolizumab for early triple-negative breast cancer. N Engl J Med 2020 Feb 27;382(9):810–821. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1910549.Cortes J, Cescon DW, Rugo HS, et al. Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy versus placebo plus chemotherapy for previously untreated locally recurrent inoperable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (KEYNOTE-355): a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 3 clinical trial. Lancet 2020;396(10265):1817–1828. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32531-9Ethics ApprovalAll patients provided written, informed consent. The study protocols for the collection of specimens from the early-stage breast cancer cohort and from the metastatic TNBC clinical trial were separately approved by independent review boards at Providence Portland Medical Center and Cedars Sinai Medical Center (mTNBC clinical trial only).
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