Abstract 518: Immunogenomic correlates of response to combination immune checkpoint blockade in advanced sarcoma
Authors: Mitra Akash , Somaiah Neeta , Conley Anthony P. , Amini Behrang , Lin Heather , Sanchez Beatriz E. , Garcia-Prieto Celia , Mathew Grace , Bernatchez Chantale , Ravi Vinod , Araujo Dejka , Zarzour Maria A. , Livingston John A. , Roland Christina L. , Daw Najat , Baguley Joshua , Wang Wei-Lien , Beird Hannah , Tate Taylor , Haymaker Cara , Little Latasha D. , Gumbs Curtis , Song Xingshi , Keung Emily Z. , Zhang Shaojun , Gite Swati , Zhang Jianhua , Solis Luisa , Tawbi Hussein , Wang Linghua , Patel Shreyaskumar , Benjamin Robert S. , Lazar Alexander J. , Wistuba Ignacio I. , Futreal Andrew 
Published: July 2021

Sarcomas encompass a rare but highly diverse set of tumor malignancies, contributing disproportionately to years of life lost. Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has been successful across various tumor types; however, their efficacy and predictability in sarcomas remain unknown. We conducted a translational study using pre- and on-treatment tumor biopsies collected prospectively on a Phase II clinical trial (NCT02815995) evaluating the role of combination anti-PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 in 57 patients, enrolled across multiple histologies of metastatic sarcoma. We obtained tumor biopsies at baseline and after 6 weeks of treatment and performed whole-exome, T-cell repertoire (TCR) and RNA-sequencing, along with multiplexed-immunofluorescence (mIF).We deconvoluted substantial variability present in the tumor microenvironment (TME) within sarcomas and found instances of relatively inflamed tumors which failed to respond to ICB. However, amongst those potential molecular correlates of response analyzed, elevated levels of B-cells both at the transcriptome and through validation staining (p = 0.047 and p = 0.022) were most significantly correlated with response. In order to gain more insight into the phenotype and function of B-cells in contributing to response, we inferred BCR-templates and found higher levels of both IGH and IGL diversity (p = 0.0276 and p = 0. 0889 respectively) in responders to ICB. Additionally, we detected increased levels of hyperexpanded IGH clones at the on-treatment time point in patients that responded to therapy (p = 0.048). This B-cell enrichment was validated and found to be predictive of response (p = 0.043) in an independent sarcoma anti-PD-1 treated cohort with matched molecular data. Responsive tumors were also associated with higher levels of TCR richness indicating a strong association of diversity in the TCR of responders (p = 0.047). This work demonstrates the potential for multi-lineage immune cell enrichment and frames the potential molecular features of the TME that may influence response in ICB treated sarcomas.

Citation Format: Akash Mitra, Neeta Somaiah, Anthony P. Conley, Behrang Amini, Heather Lin, Beatriz E. Sanchez, Celia Garcia-Prieto, Grace Mathew, Chantale Bernatchez, Vinod Ravi, Dejka Araujo, Maria A. Zarzour, John A. Livingston, Christina L. Roland, Najat Daw, Joshua Baguley, Wei-Lien Wang, Hannah Beird, Taylor Tate, Cara Haymaker, Latasha D. Little, Curtis Gumbs, Xingshi Song, Emily Z. Keung, Shaojun Zhang, Swati Gite, Jianhua Zhang, Luisa Solis, Hussein Tawbi, Linghua Wang, Shreyaskumar Patel, Robert S. Benjamin, Alexander J. Lazar, Ignacio I. Wistuba, Andrew Futreal. Immunogenomic correlates of response to combination immune checkpoint blockade in advanced sarcoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 518.