Abstract 1921: The DDB2 intronic variation rs830083 is a strong predictor of gemtuzumab ozogamicin response in AML patients: A calicheamicin pathway-directed analysis from the COG-AAML0531 trial
Authors: Shastri Vivek M. , Chauhan Lata , Alonzo Todd A. , Wang Yi-Cheng , Aplenc Richard , Hirsch Betsy A. , Gamis Alan S. , Meshinchi Soheil , Lamba Jatinder K. 
Published: September 2020

Polymorphisms in DNA damage repair (DDR) genes could serve as predictors of response to gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO), a CD33 targeting antibody conjugated to the DNA damaging agent calicheamicin approved for use in immunotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). GO is internalized upon binding to the myeloid cell surface antigen CD33, allowing calicheamicin-mediated DNA damage and subsequent apoptosis. Following concerns over safety, GO was withdrawn in 2010 but was re-approved in 2017 with the emergence of new evidence of its clinical efficacy and safety. In clinical trials, significantly improved event free survival (EFS), disease free survival (DFS), and relapse risk (RR) were observed in a subset of AML patients with the addition of GO to conventional AML chemotherapy. Combined with low overall survival (OS) and high RR with the relatively unchanged conventional AML chemotherapy, GO usage is anticipated to increase. We used samples from the Children's Oncology Group (COG) trial AAML0531 to determine the association between polymorphism in DDR genes and OS, EFS, DFS, and RR with GO treatment as the primary end points. In this trial, newly diagnosed AML patients were randomized to receive either the standard 5 course chemotherapy alone (Arm A) or with two doses of GO (3mg/m2/dose) during induction 1 and intensification 2 (Arm B). Briefly, genomic DNA samples from a total of 947 patients from Arm A and Arm B were genotyped for 131 SNPs across 43 key genes involved in calicheamicin-mediated DDR. Overall, 28 SNPs in 21 genes were significantly associated with OS, EFS, DFS, and RR. Of these, 21 SNPs in 16 genes were associated with response to GO treatment (Arm B; p ≤ 0.05) and not with conventional AML chemotherapy (Arm A; p ≥ 0.05). The top 5 SNPs occurred within DDB2, XPA, XPC, and XRCC1 – genes involved in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) DDR pathway. The intronic variation rs830083 (G&gt;C) in DDB2 had the poorest outcome (OS Cox p = 0.01; EFS cox p = 0.004; DFS p = 0.000; RR reg p = 0.0006). Furthermore, rs830083 was also most significantly associated with standard risk patients (DFS p = 0.003), EFS (p=0.01) and RR (p = 0.0006). DDB2 has been reported to play a critical role in apoptotic processes post-DNA damage induction by regulating p53, lending further importance to the association between rs830083 and poor response to treatment. In conclusion, the identification of several variants associated with treatment outcomes in our study underscores the importance of a pathway-directed SNP-based candidate gene approach to identify personalized approaches for AML treatment. Specifically, screening DDB2 SNPs could be applied in patient selection and predicting response to GO treatment.

Citation Format: Vivek M. Shastri, Lata Chauhan, Todd A. Alonzo, Yi-Cheng Wang, Richard Aplenc, Betsy A. Hirsch, Alan S. Gamis, Soheil Meshinchi, Jatinder K. Lamba. The DDB2 intronic variation rs830083 is a strong predictor of gemtuzumab ozogamicin response in AML patients: A calicheamicin pathway-directed analysis from the COG-AAML0531 trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1921.