Abstract PO048: CD40/anti-PD-1 sequential immunotherapy outperforms multiple immunotherapy combinations in an oral cancer prevention mouse model
Authors: de Oliveira Novaes Jose A. Monteiro , Poteete Alissa , Pisegna Marlese , William William N. , Heymach John V. 
Published: February 2021

PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors pembrolizumab and nivolumab are approved for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Previously we have demonstrated that PD-1/PD-L1 pathway blockade can reduce the progression of oral premalignant lesions (OPL) to carcinoma in the 4-NQO carcinogen-induced murine model of OSCC. Furthermore, pembrolizumab is currently being evaluated for prevention of OSCC in patients with high risk OPLs in the Immune Prevention of Oral Cancer clinical trial (NCT02882282). Building on these earlier studies, here we have conducted pre-clinical evaluation of other possible targets including CD40, OX40, and 4-1BB for the immunoprevention of OSCC, and determined the impact of combined or sequential treatment with PD-1/PD-L1 pathway blockade. We treated C57BL/6 mice with the carcinogen 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide for 8 weeks in drinking water. Eight weeks after discontinuing 4-NQO, mice were treated with either IgG (n: 20), used as control group, anti-PD-1 monotherapy, concomitant anti-PD-1+OX4, anti-PD-1+CD40, anti-PD-1+4-1BB, or OX40, CD40, and 4-1BB followed by anti-PD-1 therapy (n:10 treatment groups). Mice were sacrificed 8 weeks after treatment. We assessed serial H&E-stained cross sections of tongues harvested at the same time point for total OSCC area. Tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLN) lymphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry. Anova and Mann-Whitney test were used for statistical comparison. Treatment of mice harboring OPLs with CD40 followed by anti-PD-1 immunotherapy resulted in a decrease in the median total OSCC area when compared with our IgG control group (p= 0.034). Treatment with anti-PD-1 monotherapy showed a trend towards reducing progression of OPL to OSCC. Concomitant therapy with CD40 and anti-PD-1 along with the other combination immunotherapy regimens did not demonstrate any significant reduction in the progression of OPL to OSCC. Treatment with sequential CD40+anti-PD-1 increased both the CD8+PD-1+ lymphocyte population and the MFI values for PD-1 in the CD4+Foxp3- population in TDLN. When the TDLN of both concomitant and sequential 4-1BB+anti-PD-1 treatment groups were analyzed, a decrease in the CD4+PD-L1+ population, and an increase in both CD8+PD-1+ population and CD8/CD4+PD-L1+ ratio was found, although this change in the immune milieu was not associated to a reduction of OPL progression to OSCC. Targeting CD40 and PD-1 pathways sequentially, but not concomitantly, during the OPL stage led to a reduction in the progression of OPL to OSCC. The TDLN analysis of this treatment group revealed an increase in both CD8+PD-1+ lymphocytes and MFI values for PD-1 in CD4+Foxp3- lymphocytes. No other treatment group was able to significantly reduce progression of OPL to OSCC or showed a similar modulation of the lymphocyte population. These results support further investigation on how sequential CD40+anti-PD-1 immunotherapy hinder tumor immune evasion, making it a potential regimen for prevention of OSCC.

Citation Format: Jose A. Monteiro de Oliveira Novaes, Alissa Poteete, Marlese Pisegna, William N. William, John V. Heymach. CD40/anti-PD-1 sequential immunotherapy outperforms multiple immunotherapy combinations in an oral cancer prevention mouse model [abstract]. In: Abstracts: AACR Virtual Special Conference: Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy; 2020 Oct 19-20. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2021;9(2 Suppl):Abstract nr PO048.