Abstract PO5-21-06: Pathway profiling for prediction of response to neoadjuvant Letrozole therapy in ER positive postmenopausal breast cancer: gaining new insights for targeted treatment
Authors: de Gruil Nadia , de Groot Anne Florine , Wesseling-Rozendaal Yvonne , Keizer Diederick , Neerken Sigi , Kroep Judith 
Published: May 2024

Introduction: The NEOLBC (NCT03283384) study included postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor positive (ER≥50%, PR any), HER2 negative, stage II/III breast cancer. A baseline biopsy was taken prior to start letrozole treatment and after two weeks of treatment. Based on the two week Ki67-IHC, patients were randomized (Ki67 ≥1%) to receive either Letrozole + Ribociclib or standard chemotherapy until surgery, or continued (Ki67 &lt; 1%) Letrozole mono therapy. Here we describe the signal transduction pathway profiles to better understand the molecular mechanisms of response to neoadjuvant letrozole. Methods: Signal transduction pathway activities for the ER, AR, MAPK, PI3K, HH, TGFβ and Notch pathways were measured on baseline and two weeks samples using the OncoSIGNal qPCR test (InnoSIGN). High pathway activity in a tumor sample was defined as pathway activity value above the 95th percentile of reference normal epithelial breast tissue. The pathway activity patterns of the Ki67 &lt; 1% (n=30) and Ki67 &gt; 1% (n=63) groups were compared between baseline and two weeks of treatment. Results: Although all measured baseline samples (n=93) were ER IHC staining positive (≥50%), there is a large range in baseline ER signal transduction pathway activity (32 to 78 on a scale from 0 – 100) and 20% of the samples show an ER-activity range (32 - 45) that normally falls in the range of ER IHC stained negative breast tissue. The group with Ki67 &gt; 1% after 2 weeks Letrozole treatment showed non elevated ER pathway activity at baseline more often (25%) compared to the Ki67 &lt; 1% group (10%). 92% of the patients showed a decrease in ER pathway (11.6 ± 8.6) activity after 2 week letrozole treatment compared to baseline (p=8.5e-13). Interestingly, baseline AR pathway activity has a good differentiating predictive value for the two week response to letrozole treatment and the overall AR pathway activity score was higher in the low Ki67 group (51.4 ± 7.4) than in the Ki67 ≥ 1% group (46.7 ± 6.4; p=0.0053) and more often classified as high in 30% of the low Ki67 group vs. 13% of the Ki67 ≥ 1% group. The Ki67 &gt; 1% group showed activation of non-hormonal pathways (PI3K, MAPK and/or HH) more frequent (38%) at baseline compared to the &lt; 1% Ki67 group (19%). Conclusion: Positive ER staining does not always relate to a high ER pathway activity, possibly explaining that not all patients respond equally well to ER inhibition therapy. Activation of hormonal pathways (ER, but also AR) appear to be predictive for early (2 weeks) response towards Letrozole as assessed by Ki67 staining. Involvement of non-hormonal pathways is associated with less effective response towards Letrozole alone. Pathway activity patterns could improve insight to underlying hormonal treatment escape mechanisms which could lead to alternative treatment options in patients with ER-positive breast cancer.

Citation Format: Nadia de Gruil, Anne Florine de Groot, Yvonne Wesseling-Rozendaal, Diederick Keizer, Sigi Neerken, Judith Kroep. Pathway profiling for prediction of response to neoadjuvant Letrozole therapy in ER positive postmenopausal breast cancer: gaining new insights for targeted treatment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO5-21-06.