Abstract PO5-24-11: An integrated approach for comprehensive molecular and tumor microenvironment characterization of invasive lobular carcinoma
Authors: Mouabbi Jason , Chernyshov Konstantin , Baranov Oleg , Kushnarev Vladimir , Turova Polina , Butusova Anna , Menshikova Sofia , Brown Jessica , Kotlov Nikita , Clayton Patrick , Nomie Krystle , Fowler Nathan , Tripathy Debu 
Published: May 2024

Introduction: Although recent studies have shown that invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is associated with worse long-term outcomes compared to invasive breast cancer of no special type (NST), they are treated in a similar manner. Therefore, classification approaches to help understand the molecular characteristics associated with the different BC subtypes are needed to personalize therapy. Here, we describe an integrated analytical approach to comprehensively characterize ILC samples.

Methods: We collected genomic and transcriptomic data for 16,087 ILC and NST samples, with clinical and pathological annotation, from 59 datasets and used an internally developed algorithm based on clustering performed after gene expression analysis to classify them into 5 intrinsic subtypes: Basal, Luminal A (LumA), Luminal B (LumB), HER2 high, and HER2 low. We performed gene set enrichment analyses and utilized the DESeq2 algorithm to perform differential expression analysis of RNA-seq data. We performed molecular grade subtyping using methods described by Antysheva et al. (Cancer Res., 2022). Samples that were listed as ILC or had an inactivated CDH1 gene by mutation, deletion or low expression (&lt; −2.5 MAD after median scaling) were defined as having an ILC histomolecular subtype. Using methods described by Bagaev et. al. (Cancer Cell, 2021), 29 functional gene expression signatures were selected, and unsupervised dense Louvain clustering was performed to identify TME subtypes. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis. The tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) gene signature was evaluated using methods described by Sautès-Fridman et al. (Nat. Rev. Cancer, 2019).

Results: In the ILC samples (n=1,887), we identified LumA (46%), LumB (40%), Basal (8%,), HER2 high (3%), and HER2 low (3%) subtypes. In contrast, the NST samples were classified as LumB (41%), LumA (25%), Basal (19%), HER2 high (9%), and HER2 low (5%). Molecular grade subtyping revealed that 67% of ILC samples were low grade and 33% were high grade, compared to NST where 55% were high grade and 45% were low grade. Notably, among high-grade ILC, LumB (64%) and Basal (23%) subtypes were predominant. Key differentially expressed genes included downregulated CDH1 and upregulated MMP23B, IGF1, and TFAP2B across LumA and LumB ILC samples. Further analysis revealed downregulation of TACSTD2 and CDH3 in the Basal subtype for ILC samples compared to NST samples. Transcriptomic-based TME subtyping revealed distinct TME distributions across the BC subtypes and molecular grades for ILC samples (Table 1). In high-grade ILC LumB samples, 38% had a Desert (D; predictive of poor immunotherapy response) and 39% had an Immune-Enriched (IE; predictive of favorable immunotherapy response) TME. In low-grade ILC LumB samples we found that while 51% had a D TME, only 14% had an IE TME. We found an overrepresentation of the TLS signature [Solid TLS] in ILC compared to NST samples, and higher matrix remodeling and CAF signatures in LumA compared to the LumB subtype among low-grade ILC samples. Samples with high CD274 expression levels had higher percentages of T cells and M1 macrophages, and LumA samples had significantly higher (p &lt; 0.001) CD274 expression compared to the other BC subtypes.

Conclusion: These results provide in-depth molecular and tumor microenvironment characterization of ILC. Further optimization of this analytical approach could lead to the development of more effective therapeutic strategies.

Table 1. ILC subtypes classification

Citation Format: Jason Mouabbi, Konstantin Chernyshov, Oleg Baranov, Vladimir Kushnarev, Polina Turova, Anna Butusova, Sofia Menshikova, Jessica Brown, Nikita Kotlov, Patrick Clayton, Krystle Nomie, Nathan Fowler, Debu Tripathy. An integrated approach for comprehensive molecular and tumor microenvironment characterization of invasive lobular carcinoma [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 PO5-24-11.