Abstract 4486: Androgen-deprivation therapy promotes immune suppression in a murine model of prostate cancer
Authors: Krolewski John J. , Sha Kai , Nastiuk Kent L. 
Published: August 2019

Most prostate cancer (PCa) deaths are due to castration resistant PCa (CRPC), following failure of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). ADT is the standard of care for patients with advanced PCa but nearly universal progression to CRPC occurs 2-3 years after ADT is initiated. Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors has not been effective in most prostate cancers, perhaps because such cancers lack functional CD8 T-cells. This may be caused by infiltration of myeloid cell populations into the tumor immune cell microenvironment (TIME). Recently, we found that in a PTEN-deficient mouse PCa model, castration induces an immunosuppressive state within the tumor that is concurrent with tumor recurrence. The response to castration/ADT is tri-phasic: a pro-apoptotic regression phase when tumor shrinks, followed by selection for a residual population of resistant tumor cells and finally recurrent growth as CRPC. Using PCa cell lines to model the first two phases of the response to ADT, we have shown that ADT induces apoptosis, thereby enriching for an ADT-resistant stem/progenitor population that we propose is the in vivo source of TNF. Mechanistically, in our model system the response to ADT is driven by the soluble mediators TNF and CCL2, which facilitate communication within the TIME. Specifically, a TNF-CCL2-CCR2 paracrine loop is induced between prostate cancer cells and non-tumor cells in the microenvironment: TNF produced by tumor cells acts on myofibroblasts to induce CCL2 production, which in turn recruits CCR2+ tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). To investigate the ADT response within the TIME in an in vivo model of prostate cancer, we employed a prostate-specific PTEN-deficient mouse model (PbCre4 x PTENf/f). Castration caused the tumors to regress, consistent with initial phase of the response that is seen in the human disease. At late times post-castration (5-6 weeks), corresponding to the selection phase, we observed a coordinate increase in the stem/progenitor tumor cell population, as well as TNF and CCL2, within the TIME. Immunohistochemical staining of tumors 5 weeks post-castration revealed an increase in TAMs, and a decrease in CD8 T cells, consistent with an immuno-suppressive or immuno-evasive state. This phenotype was reversed by a soluble receptor that binds TNF (etanercept). Thus, following ADT, TNF derived from an ADT-resistant stem/progenitor epithelial tumor cell population promotes an immunosuppressive state via CCL2 in the TIME. Analysis of public human PCa data sets show the transcripts for TNF, as well as gene signatures for stem/progenitor tumor cells and M2 TAMs are increased in CRPC, consistent with our hypothesis that ADT drives the development of myeloid immuno-suppressive state via a TNF-CCL2-CCR2 axis. Our results set the stage for the future development of immunotherapies that could improve the efficacy of ADT.

Citation Format: John J. Krolewski, Kai Sha, Kent L. Nastiuk. Androgen-deprivation therapy promotes immune suppression in a murine model of prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4486.