Abstract P6-10-18: Development and validation of novel biomarkers of response to radiotherapy in breast cancer
Authors: Meehan James , Gray Mark , Martinez-Perez Carlos , Kay Charlene , Dixon J Michael , Wills Jimi , Ward Carol , von Kriegsheim Alex , Quinn Niall , Oikonomidou Olga , Cameron David , Langdon Simon P , Argyle David , Kunkler Ian H , Turnbull Arran K 
Published: March 2020

Background: Radiotherapy (RT) plays an important role in the multimodal treatment of breast cancer (BC). Despite improvements in the accuracy of delivering radiation to specific biological target volumes, the clinical response of BC to RT is still affected by intrinsic/acquired radioresistance. These resistant cancer cells can contribute to the development of recurrent disease and poor patient outcomes. Clinical signs of RT response are often not apparent for several weeks post-treatment; patients who fail to respond will therefore initially go undetected. There are currently no clinically validated biomarkers that can predict which patients will respond to RT or assess response during treatment. Our study aims to address this major clinical need through the identification and validation of biomarkers of radiation responsiveness.

Methods: The effects of different radiation doses (2 - 10Gy) at a range of time points (1 - 24h) were investigated by analysing the protein secretion profiles from 3 BC cell lines: MCF-7 (ER+), ZR-751 (ER+) and MDA-MB-231 (ER-). Conditioned media was collected from each dose/time point and proteins isolated for mass spec analysis. For comparison, radioresistant models were derived from each of the 3 cell lines and were characterized by proliferation and colony formation assays, invasion and migration assays, whole-genome transcriptomic sequencing (WGTS) analysis and western blotting. To assess intrinsic response to RT a panel of 16 BC cell lines were evaluated by colony formation assays following a 2Gy dose of radiation. WGTS of a patient cohort of 230 (138 ER+ve, 92 ER-ve) post-menopausal women with BC, treated with breast conserving surgery and adjuvant RT but no systemic adjuvant therapy, with a median follow-up of 14 years, is currently underway.

Results: 9 biomarkers emerged whose secretion was significantly increased with radiation. These were evaluated by western blotting of conditioned media 24h after a 2Gy dose of RT in matched radio-sensitive and resistant cell lines; this confirmed significantly higher levels of radiation induced secretion from sensitive cells compared to resistant. Radioresistant cell lines were characterised by epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition, enhanced invasion/migration, loss of ER and PgR and increased EGFR and PI3K signaling activity. Initial mechanistic investigations suggest that biomarker release in response to radiation occurs via microvesicles. A blood-based assay to test the level of these secreted biomarkers is currently under development. Pre-treatment levels of the 9 biomarkers were also found to be associated with prediction of intrinsic response to RT at both gene and protein level. A gene expression signature comprising the 9 candidates is strongly associated with the intrinsic response to RT across the 16 BC cell lines studied, with higher expression found in those more sensitive to RT compared with those less sensitive or resistant. Validation of the predictive power of these biomarkers in terms of recurrence-free and overall BC specific survival is currently being assessed at gene and protein level in the patient cohort.

Conclusions: We have identified 9 biomarkers which are released from BC cells sensitive to radiation 24h after a 2Gy dose (in line with current clinical standards) but not from radio-resistant derivatives.A blood based assay is currently under development which has the potential to monitor response to RT in the neoadjuvant and palliative settings.Intracellular levels of the 9 biomarkers are strongly associated with intrinsic response to RT and may hold predictive potential.These biomarkers may have the potential to improve patient care by identifying patients less likely to benefit from RT, paving the way for personalization of treatment, including altered dosing schedules and the future use of emerging radio-sensitizers.

Citation Format: James Meehan, Mark Gray, Carlos Martinez-Perez, Charlene Kay, J Michael Dixon, Jimi Wills, Carol Ward, Alex von Kriegsheim, Niall Quinn, Olga Oikonomidou, David Cameron, Simon P Langdon, David Argyle, Ian H Kunkler, Arran K Turnbull. Development and validation of novel biomarkers of response to radiotherapy in breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-10-18.