Abstract P1-06-02: Impact of heterogeneity of DCIS on immune cell infiltrations
Authors: Badve S , Gökmen-Polar Y , Harris AL , Sui Y , Sevinsky C , Santamaria-Pang A , Ginty F , Tan PH , Gerdes MJ 
Published: March 2017

Background: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) accounts for at least 20% of breast cancers. Factors associated with recurrence of DCIS or progression to invasive carcinoma are not well delineated. The goals of the current study were to profile the epithelial and immune cells using the MultiOmyx hyperplexed immuno-fluorescent based analyses. This was coupled with semi-automated algorithms to characterize the inter-relationships between cell populations within individual DCIS lesions.

Patients and Methods: Analysis for 15 antibody markers (EGFR, Her2, Her4, S6, pMTOR, PCAD, CD44v6, NaKATPase, SLC7A5, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD68, and CD10) was performed on a single FFPE section containing 10-20 distinct ducts from 13 cases of DCIS. Briefly, approximately 40 fields of view (FOV) from digitized sections containing DCIS or normal tissue were sequentially (cyclically) stained for the 15 markers. Each cycle entailed staining with 2-3 markers followed by imaging, dye inactivation, and re-staining. DAPI was used for nuclear demarcation and for registration of the images, while S6, pan-cadherin, Na+K+ATPase and pan-cytokeratin were used for epithelial segmentation. K-means clustering was used to determine patterns of co-expression of markers at the single cell, duct, and patient levels. These clusters were then correlated with immune marker expression by tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) by marker type (CD4, CD8, and CD20) and tumor compartment (stromal versus intraepithelial).

Results: Analysis of the epithelial component in each of 13 cases of DCIS (n= 415 ducts) revealed 8 distinct expression patterns (clusters) using a panel of 7 markers (EGFR, Her2, Her4, pmTOR, CD44v6, SLC7A5, and CD10). The frequency and distribution of clusters, annotated at the single cell level, showed that 4 DCIS's were dominated (&gt;80%) by a single cell phenotype represented by cluster groups 3 and 7 (high Her2), cluster 6 (High Her4 and SLC7A5 and low Her2), or cluster 4 (non-descript). In 5 pts, the pattern was more heterogeneous consisting of mixture of cell populations with 50-70% of the cells belonging to cluster 1 (moderate to high levels for all markers except EGFR and CD10). The remaining pts had a strong representation of cluster 4 and 5 (CD44v6 and phospho-mTOR) cells. The distribution of both intra-epithelial and stromal TILs in DCIS cases were either consisted of a mixed B-cell (CD20+) and T-cell response (n=4), or one dominated by T-cells. Cluster 2 (High EGFR and CD10) was associated with a largely T-cell response (rs = 0.83, P value = 0.0004), while Cluster 7 (strong HER2) was associated with a B-cell response (rs = 0.68, P value = is 0.009).

Conclusions: Analysis 15 markers and use of K-means clustering algorithm, shows prominent inter-tumoral (but not intra-tumoral) heterogeneity in DCIS. Furthermore, epithelial cell specific clusters (high HER2 or EGFR) were associated with distinct B or T cell infiltration by TILs. Additional ongoing studies will determine the clinical significance of the clusters with respect to recurrence of DCIS and development of invasive carcinomas.

Citation Format: Badve S, Gökmen-Polar Y, Harris AL, Sui Y, Sevinsky C, Santamaria-Pang A, Ginty F, Tan PH, Gerdes MJ. Impact of heterogeneity of DCIS on immune cell infiltrations [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-06-02.