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Voorwerk L, Sanders J, Keusters MS, Balduzzi S, Cornelissen S, Duijst M, Lips EH, Sonke GS, Linn SC, Horlings HM, Kok M. Immune landscape of breast tumors with low and intermediate estrogen receptor expression. NPJ Breast Cancer 2023; 9:39. [PMID: 37179445 PMCID: PMC10182974 DOI: 10.1038/s41523-023-00543-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is currently approved for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), whereas responses to ICB are also observed in a small subgroup of Estrogen Receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. The cut-off for ER-positivity (≥1%) is based on likelihood of endocrine treatment response, but ER-positive breast cancer represents a very heterogeneous group. This raises the question whether selection based on ER-negativity should be revisited to select patients for ICB treatment in the context of clinical trials. Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) and other immune parameters are higher in TNBC compared to ER-positive breast cancer, but it is unknown whether lower ER levels are associated with more inflamed tumor microenvironments (TME). We collected a consecutive series of primary tumors from 173 HER2-negative breast cancer patients, enriched for tumors with ER expression between 1 and 99% and found levels of stromal TILs, CD8 + T cells, and PD-L1 positivity in breast tumors with ER 1-9% and ER 10-50% to be comparable to tumors with ER 0%. Expression of immune-related gene signatures in tumors with ER 1-9% and ER 10-50% was comparable to ER 0%, and higher than in tumors with ER 51-99% and ER 100%. Our results suggest that the immune landscape of ER low tumors (1-9%) and ER intermediate tumors (10-50%) mimic that of primary TNBC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonie Voorwerk
- Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Joyce Sanders
- Department of Pathology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Milou S Keusters
- Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Sara Balduzzi
- Department of Biometrics, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Sten Cornelissen
- Core Facility Molecular Pathology & Biobanking, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Maxime Duijst
- Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Esther H Lips
- Division of Molecular Pathology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Gabe S Sonke
- Department of Medical Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Sabine C Linn
- Division of Molecular Pathology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Medical Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Hugo M Horlings
- Division of Molecular Pathology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Marleen Kok
- Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
- Department of Medical Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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Voorwerk L, Horlings HM, Sanders J, Keusters MS, Cornelissen S, Sonke GS, Linn SC, Kok M. Immune landscape of breast tumors with low and intermediate estrogen receptor (ER) expression. J Clin Oncol 2022. [DOI: 10.1200/jco.2022.40.16_suppl.566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
566 Background: Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is currently only approved for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the cut-off used for ER expression (<1% and in some countries <10%) has been developed as a biomarker for endocrine treatment response and not for selection for likelihood of response to ICB. While stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) and PD-L1 expression are higher in TNBC compared to ER-positive tumors, the distribution of these and other key immune parameters in tumors with very low (1-9%), low (10-50%), intermediate (51-99%) and high (100%) ER levels is unknown. Methods: We collected a consecutive series of treatment-naïve tumor blocks of ER+/HER2- breast tumors diagnosed between 2010 and 2019. All available tumor blocks were used from the groups with ER expression between 1-9% and 10-50%. For the other groups, we randomly selected tumor blocks aiming for similar group sizes. This resulted in the following subgroups: ER 0% (n=46), 1-9% (n=17), 10-50% (n=22), 51-99% (n=37) and 100% (n=51). sTILs were scored using H&E slides. Immunohistochemistry was performed for CD8 and PD-L1 (22C3, scored on immune cells, cut-off ≥1%). Gene expression analysis was performed using the NanoString nCounter Breast Cancer 360 panel. Results: We found the highest levels of sTILs and stromal CD8+ cells in tumors with ER0% with comparable levels in tumors with ER1-9% and ER10-50% (Table). The proportion of PD-L1 positive tumors was 86% in tumors with ER0%, 81% in tumors with ER1-9%, 76% in tumors with ER 10-50% and 59% and 50% in tumors with ER51-99% and 100% respectively. As expected, a higher differentiation grade correlated with lower levels of ER expression. Differential gene expression demonstrated that expression of immune-related signatures, such as IDO1, antigen presenting machinery, CD8+ T cells and IFNγ, was comparable in tumors with ER1-50% as compared to ER0%, but statistically significantly higher as compared to tumors with ER100%. Conclusions: Our data suggest that breast tumors with low levels of ER expression (1-9%, 10-50%) comprise a separate entity within ER-positive breast cancer regarding their immune landscape. Here we show that not only tumors with very low ER levels (1-9%) mimic TNBC in terms of immune landscape but also that tumors with low ER levels (10-50%) might be more likely to respond to ICB than tumors with high levels of ER expression. [Table: see text]
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Hugo M. Horlings
- Department of Pathology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Joyce Sanders
- Department of Pathology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | | | | | - Gabe S. Sonke
- Department of Medical Oncology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Sabine C. Linn
- Department of Medical Oncology-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Marleen Kok
- Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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