Abstract PO2-06-10: Prevalence of genomic alterations in Xerna tumor microenvironment subtypes in triple negative breast cancer patients
Authors: Basu Gargi , Lobello Janine , Thakkar Snehal , Aldrich Jessica , Halbert Matthew , Eimerman Patrick , Flannery Cynthia , Therala Nishitha , Hall David , Pointing Daniel , Vohar Lea , Luštrik Roman , Ausec Luka , Uhlik Mark , Iyer Seema , Benjamin Laura , Baehner Frederick 
Published: May 2024

Introduction: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are an important therapeutic option for patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, identification of patients most likely to respond is challenging. PD-L1 positivity by immunohistochemistry is the standard biomarker used for ICI therapy selection in TNBC. However, other biomarkers, such as analysis of the tumor microenvironment (TME) may be more accurate in predicting response. The XernaTM TME Panel uses RNA sequencing data and machine learning to analyze the TME, utilizing the angiogenic and immunogenic biology of the TME to classify tumors into four TME subtypes. In this study, the distribution of Xerna TME subtypes and associated genomic alterations in TNBC were investigated for their potential use in therapy selection. Methods: A total of 203 TNBC patient samples underwent tumor-normal whole-exome, whole-transcriptome sequencing testing with the OncoExTraTM assay. The whole-transcriptome expression data were analyzed using the Xerna TME Panel to assign each sample to one of four subtypes: Immune Active (IA), Immune Suppressed (IS), Immune Desert (ID) and Angiogenic (A). The IA and IS subtypes both have high immune scores that may be particularly sensitive to ICI therapy. Actionable alterations, defined as those with FDA-approved matched therapies in any cancer, with matched clinical trials, or with evidence in cancer guidelines or the literature for possible matched therapies, were also identified and associations across Xerna subtypes were explored. Results: Approximately half (100 of 203; 49.3%) of the patient samples had high (IA+IS) immune subtypes (Table 1). Targetable alterations associated with an FDA-approved therapy were present in 114 (56.2%) patients. No biomarkers were significantly associated (p &lt; 0.05) with high (IA+IS) versus low (ID+A) immune scores. Biomarkers associated with ICI response, namely mismatch repair gene alterations (MSH2/3/6, MLH1/3, PMS1/2), high tumor mutational burden (TMB-high) and microsatellite instability were detected in only 6 (3.0%), 3 (1.5%) and 1 (0.5%) patient samples respectively, and all but 1, an MSH6 alteration, were in high immune subtype samples. Conclusions: The Xerna TME Panel classified 49.3% of TNBC patient tumors to IA or IS, suggesting they may respond to ICI therapy. Many (56.2%) patient tumors harbored alterations associated with FDA-approved therapies, providing the potential for novel combination therapies. These findings warrant further study and clinical validation in TNBC patients treated with ICI therapy.

Table 1. Frequency of actionable biomarkers that were present in at least 10 (5%) TNBC patient samples.

Citation Format: Gargi Basu, Janine Lobello, Snehal Thakkar, Jessica Aldrich, Matthew Halbert, Patrick Eimerman, Cynthia Flannery, Nishitha Therala, David Hall, Daniel Pointing, Lea Vohar, Roman Luštrik, Luka Ausec, Mark Uhlik, Seema Iyer, Laura Benjamin, Frederick Baehner. Prevalence of genomic alterations in Xerna tumor microenvironment subtypes in triple negative breast cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO2-06-10.