Abstract B011: Immunoediting in untreated mismatch repair deficient colorectal cancer
Authors: Grasso Catherine , Giannakis Marios , Wells Daniel , Wheeler David , Shinbrot Eve , Zaidi Syed , Huyghe Jeroen , Geybels Milan , Salipante Stephen , Abril-Rodriguez Gabriel , Escuin-Ordinas Helena , Puig-Saus Cristina , Shin Daniel Sanghoon , Ogino Shuji , Ribas Antoni , Peters Ulrike 
Published: August 2018

A subset of colorectal carcinomas (CRC) with high microsatellite instability (MSI-high) have been shown to respond to immune checkpoint blockade, while the much more common microsatellite stable (MSS) CRC do not usually respond to these immunotherapies. Most MSI-high tumors grow progressively despite a high mutational load, suggesting that the cancer may have developed means to escape from immune recognition, which is termed immunoediting. This immunoediting process includes three phases: an initial phase of nascent cancer cell elimination due to high immunogenicity, then a period of equilibrium with the immune response, finally leading to escape of the cancer cells that have developed genetic or epigenetic mechanisms allowing them to grow progressively in an immunocompetent host. It is likely that MSI-high cancers would go through similar processes to eventually escape from immune recognition. To better understand the differential immunoediting in MSI-high and MSS CRC, we combined tumor exome data from 592 cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) with previously published tumor exome data from 619 cases from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study to yield an unprecedented sample of 1,211 CRC molecularly characterized cases. The large number of samples, including a very large number of MSI-high cases (N = 179), gives us the power to identify the prevalence of the mechanisms of resistance discussed and thereby prioritize downstream efforts. We utilized the MutSigCV algorithm to identify significantly mutated genes in MSS and MSI-high tumors in the TCGA cohort (496 MSS and 75 MSI-high cases), and the NHS/HPFS cohorts (438 MSS and 104 MSI-high cases). We identified a total of 62 significantly mutated genes, of which 9 were identified in MSS tumors only, 40 in MSI-high tumors only, and 13 in both. Twenty-seven of the 53 significantly mutated genes in MSI-high were novel, likely resulting from a large increase in the number of MSI-high tumors relative to previous studies. We identified 13 significantly mutated genes with a documented role in the immune system, specifically in MSI-high tumors, a subtype shown previously to have a high level of T-cell infiltration; ZFP36L2 and B2M were significantly mutated in both MSS and MSI-high. B2M, HLA-A, and HLA-B are significantly mutated antigen presenting genes that were previously reported to be recurrently mutated in MSI-high. Eleven of the significantly mutated immune-related genes had roles in modulating diverse hematopoietic cell types and effects beyond antigen presentation; those genes include XYLT2, a dendritic cell trafficking gene; ZBTB20, a Toll-like receptor mediating immune response; RNF128, a regulator of IL2 and IL4 mediated T-cell maturation; KLF3, a gene involved in B-cell development; ZFP36L2, a gene involved in thymocyte development; CASP8, a gene involved in innate immunity; and CD58, a gene involved in the activation of both T lymphocytes and NK cells. Together, these mutations indicate positive selection for immune escape through other mechanisms beyond mutations in antigen-presenting machinery.

Citation Format: Catherine Grasso, Marios Giannakis, Daniel Wells, David Wheeler, Eve Shinbrot, Syed Zaidi, Jeroen Huyghe, Milan Geybels, Stephen Salipante, Gabriel Abril-Rodriguez, Helena Escuin-Ordinas, Cristina Puig-Saus, Daniel Sanghoon Shin, Shuji Ogino, Antoni Ribas, Ulrike Peters. Immunoediting in untreated mismatch repair deficient colorectal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2017 Oct 26-30; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2018;17(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B011.