Abstract B197: Focal adhesion kinase inhibition enables efficacy of checkpoint immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer
Authors: Jiang Hong , Knolhoff Brett L. , Hedge Samarth , Zhu Yu , Herndon John , Shapiro Irina M. , Weaver David T. , Pachter Jonathan A. , Denardo David G. 
Published: May 2016

Checkpoint immunotherapeutics are promising agents with potential to improve patient outcomes. Unfortunately, to date, single agent immunotherapy has achieved limited clinical benefit in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). This may be due to the presence of the uniquely immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment present in PDACs that creates a barrier to immune surveillance by T cells. Critical obstacles to immune surveillance in PDAC tumors include a dense desmoplastic stroma that acts as a barrier to T cell infiltration and high numbers of tumor-associated immunosuppressive cells, such as tumor-associates macrophages, MDSCs, and regulatory T cells (Tregs).

To understand which signaling pathways in pancreatic tumor cells might drive this suppressive tumor microenvironment, we analyzed the correlation between hyper-activated signaling molecules and tumor infiltrating leukocytes using 50 human PDAC tumor tissues. Of the pathways evaluated, we found that focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activity is elevated in human PDAC which correlates with highly fibrotic tumors with poor CD8+ T cell infiltration. The oral FAK kinase inhibitor VS-4718, currently in phase 1 clinical evaluation, was tested to determine if it could overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of PDAC. Single agent VS-4718 dramatically limited tumor progression resulting in a doubling of survival in the p48-CRE/KrasG12D/p53flox/+ PDAC mouse model (KPC mice). This alteration in tumor progression was associated with dramatically reduced tumor fibrosis, decreased numbers of Tregs and tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells, and anti-tumor polarization of tumor-associated macrophages.

We postulated that the desirable effects of FAK inhibition on the tumor microenvironment might render PDAC tumors more sensitive to immunotherapy. Accordingly, we found that VS-4718 significantly potentiated the efficacy of anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA4 antibodies in KPC mouse models with a near tripling of survival. We next assessed the mechanism of this potentiation. We found that FAK in tumor cells regulated pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic cytokine secretion. Furthermore, we found that shRNA knockdown of FAK in PDAC cells resulted in failure of PDAC cells to induce pro-fibrotic programs in fibroblasts. Importantly, the FAK inhibitor VS-4718 and FAK shRNA in the tumor cells were each effective in increasing CD8+ cytotoxic T cell infiltration into the PDAC tumors in vivo. These data suggest that FAK inhibition increases immune surveillance programs in PDAC tumors by overcoming the fibrotic and inflammatory microenvironment rendering tumors more responsive to immunotherapy. These data provide rationale for clinical evaluation of a FAK inhibitor in combination with a PD-1 or PD-L1 antibody in patients with pancreatic and other cancers.

Citation Format: Hong Jiang, Brett L. Knolhoff, Samarth Hedge, Yu Zhu, John Herndon, Irina M. Shapiro, David T. Weaver, Jonathan A. Pachter, David G. Denardo. Focal adhesion kinase inhibition enables efficacy of checkpoint immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2015 Nov 5-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(12 Suppl 2):Abstract nr B197.