Abstract 3954: Evaluating the compatibility of tumor treating electric fields with key anti-tumoral immune functions
Authors: Diamant Gil , Simchony Hadar , Shiloach Tamar , Globerson-levin Anat , Plotnitsky Lital Gasri , Eshhar Zelig , Pencovich Niv , Grossman Rachel , Ram Zvi , Volovitz Ilan 
Published: August 2019

Background: Combining Tumor Treating electrical Fields (TTFields) with immunotherapy is a rational approach due to their different mechanisms of action (MOA) and to TTFields’ ability to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD). Conversely, TTFields may interfere with immune functions critical for effective T cell responses.

Methods: T cells from healthy donors’ peripheral blood or from viably dissociated glioblastoma samples were cultured under normal or TTFields conditions, with or without superantigen-stimulation. Eight-color flow cytometry was used to assess T cell responses by monitoring select pivotal antitumoral functions: proliferation (CFSE), IFNγ secretion, cytotoxic degranulation (CD107a), activation/exhaustion (PD1) and viability. Direct cytotoxicity was evaluated using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.

Results: The viability of stimulated T cells that attempted to proliferate decreased under TTFields, in line with TTFields’ MOA. Small or no reductions in viability were found in activated T cells that did not attempt to proliferate and in unstimulated T cells.

The functionality of stimulated peripheral-blood T cells and tumor-infiltrating T cells (TILs) under TTFields was unhindered: T cells exhibited comparable PD1 upregulation, IFNγ secretion and CD107a expression as controls. T cell polyfunctionality, associated with effective antitumoral responses, was retained under TTFields conditions. PD1-expressing TILs, a subset containing most of the tumor antigen-specific TILs, exhibited unaltered viability and functionality under TTFields. CAR T-cells, which utilize the same killing machinery as unmodified T cells, exhibited unaltered cytotoxic capability under TTFields.

Immunohistochemical evaluation of GBM samples before TTFields treatment and after recurrence showed that some patients had accommodated large increases in their CD8 and CD4 counts. RNA-Seq performed on GBM samples from 6 standardly-treated and 6 TTFields-treated patients before treatment and after recurrence. The data shows differential increases in TTFields-treated patients to controls, in the expression of immune genes associated with favorable prognosis (e.g. t-bet, NKG2D, ICOS-L, CD70) and concurrent decreases in genes associated with poor prognosis (e.g. IL4, TSLP, various complement genes).

Conclusions: The preclinical data showed that all antitumoral T cell functions examined, but proliferation, were unhindered by TTFields. The clinical data showed that TTFields may shift treated tumors to a state more conducive of anti-tumoral immune responses. Our findings support the further preclinical and clinical investigation into combining TTFields with immunotherapy.

Citation Format: Gil Diamant, Hadar Simchony, Tamar Shiloach, Anat Globerson-levin, Lital Gasri Plotnitsky, Zelig Eshhar, Niv Pencovich, Rachel Grossman, Zvi Ram, Ilan Volovitz. Evaluating the compatibility of tumor treating electric fields with key anti-tumoral immune functions [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3954.