Abstract P5-06-16: Radiosensitivity and immune cell infiltration signature predict clinical outcome of patients in the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer international consortium (METABRIC) study cohort
Authors: Kang Byung-Hee 
Published: March 2022

Purpose/Objectives There are growing evidences that tumor radiosensitivity is associated with immune activation in solid tumors. However, previous studies have not examined the relationship between patterns of immune infiltration and radiation response according to diverse molecular subtypes of breast cancer. This study evaluated radiosensitivity and immune infiltration signature to define a group of patients would benefit most from radiation therapy. Materials/Methods We performed integrative analyses of the clinical, genomic, transciptomc, and immunogenomic data to characterize the molecular features associated with radiosensitivity. We analyzed 1,903 data sets of METABRIC Study cohort using the radiosensitivity index (RSI), CIBERSORT and xCell, gene expression deconvolution algorithm which estimates the immune composition of tumor samples. According to RSI cut-point (0.3745), the patients were grouped into radiosensitive (RS, RSI-low tumors, n=1,082) versus radioresistant (RR, RSI-high tumors, n=821). Next, patients were divided into two groups accoring to immune and stromal scores, immune infiltrated (IF, n= 650) and immune excluded (IE, n=1253) subgroups. and performed integrative analyses of the clinical, genomic, transciptomc, and immunogenomic data to characterize the molecular features associated with radiosensitivity. Results RS group showed improved prognosis compared to RR group, and IF group had better survival than IE group, however, these tendency was only significant in ER negative group. Radiosensitivity was significantly associated with activation of antitumor immunity. In contrast, radio-resistance was associated with metastatic properties, such as epithelial mesenchymal transition and angiogenesis. Differentially expressed gene analysis revealed that ER signaling pathway is correlated with suppression of antitumor immunity. Higher ER was associated with higher fraction of M2 macrophage and lower PD-1 expression. Integration of immune signature and radiosensitivity index further stratified patients into four subgroups. In ER-negative disease, IF and RS group were associated with the best prognosis, whereas in ER-positive disease, immune signature and radiation response have no prognostic significance. On multivariable cox regression, both integrated immune infiltration and radiosensitivity signature was independent predictors of relapse free survival (HR 1.12, 95% CI 1.06-1.19, p &lt; 0.001) and overall survival (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01-1.11, p = 0.028). Conclusion Taken together, this results suggested that tumor radiosensitivity was associated with activation of antitumor immunity and led to better relapse free survival particularly in ER negative group.

Citation Format: Byung-Hee Kang. Radiosensitivity and immune cell infiltration signature predict clinical outcome of patients in the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer international consortium (METABRIC) study cohort [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-06-16.