Abstract 1670: Circulating biomarkers are associated with recurrence following complete resection of non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Lee Younghee , McGrail Daniel , Tran Hai , Vasquez Mayra E. , Ramos Carlos , Reuben Alexandre , Vaporciyan Ara A. , Weissferdt Annikka , Bernatchez Chantale , Cascone Tina , Wistuba Ignacio I. , Zhang Jianjun , Heymach John , Negrao Marcelo V. , Gibbons Don L. , Sepesi Boris , Haymaker Cara L. 
Published: July 2021

Background: We have previously demonstrated that the presence of a proinflammatory peripheral cytokine milieu correlates with high levels of circulating neutrophils at the time of surgery and reduced overall survival and recurrence-free survival. In this study, we hypothesized that functional immune features or states in circulation may indicate early tumor recurrence when assessed longitudinally. We also investigated whether potential deficiencies in peripheral immune functionality at the time of lung cancer resection could identify correlates with subsequent outcome.

Methods: We performed flow cytometry and luminex profiling of blood samples collected from patients with stage I-IIIA resected NSCLC (n=150) and enrolled on the Immunogenomic profiling of NSCLC (ICON) prospective protocol. Patient characteristics include 75 adenocarcinomas, 30 squamous and 12 mixed or other histologies. Only patients who underwent primary cancer resection without neoadjuvant therapy were included. At a median follow up of 18.2 months, 37 patients had disease recurrence. Blood was collected at the time of primary lung cancer resection, at 4 weeks, and 4 months thereafter with PBMCs utilized for flow cytometry and plasma for cytokine assessment. Changes in cytokines were assessed by normalizing to baseline levels.

Results: Larger tumors as well as advanced clinical and pathological stages were associated with higher frequencies of proliferating Ki67+CD4+ and Ki67+CD8+ T cells in circulation at time of resection, suggesting an activated circulating immune response. We identified novel strong correlations in the plasma between soluble BTLA and Tim3 (r= 0.87, p=1.74e-140), PD1 and CD80 (r=0.72, p=6.41e-74) and moderate correlations between soluble PD1 and PDL1 (r=0.39, p=8.41e-18). Efforts are ongoing to determine the association of specific circulating immune states with the presence of these soluble receptors. CD8+Tim3+ T cells (FC=5.2%, p=0.028) and CTLA4+NK cells (FC=47.7%, p=0.002) as well as CTLA4+Tregs (FC=25.2%, p=0.05) were found to be increased in circulation at pre-recurrence time points (either 4 weeks or 4 months) relative to resection. This suggests the emergence of a suppressive cell type as well as induction of specific checkpoint receptors on effector cells that correlate with tumor recurrence. Finally, we identified a cytokine signature associated with recurrence by testing three sets within the ICON cohort with a training set AUC = 0.76 and the test set AUC=0.72, which was validated in a third set of patients yielding an AUC = 0.76.

Conclusions: We identified circulating immune features associated with initial tumor size and overall stage as well as unique associations among soluble proteins. Increased presence of potentially inhibited or suppressed CD8+ T cells and NK cells as well as Tregs are suggestive of mechanisms of immune suppression relative to tumor recurrence.

Citation Format: Younghee Lee, Daniel McGrail, Hai Tran, Mayra E. Vasquez, Carlos Ramos, Alexandre Reuben, Ara A. Vaporciyan, Annikka Weissferdt, Chantale Bernatchez, Tina Cascone, Ignacio I. Wistuba, Jianjun Zhang, John Heymach, Marcelo V. Negrao, Don L. Gibbons, Boris Sepesi, Cara L. Haymaker. Circulating biomarkers are associated with recurrence following complete resection of non-small cell lung cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 1670.