Abstract C085: Spatial arrangements of immune cells of the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumor microenvironment correlated with outcomes in the phase 3 APACT trial
Authors: Reiss David J. , Browne Andrew , Fox Brian , Ratushnyy Alexander V. , Wang Maria , Biankin Andrew V. , Lila Thomas 
Published: November 2022

Introduction The newly diagnosed pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) population has a high unmet need for effective treatments, with median survival of &lt; 1 year. The phase 3 APACT (Adjuvant Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Clinical Trial) evaluated the use of adjuvant nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine vs. gemcitabine in 866 patients with surgically resected PDAC. We explored the tumor microenvironment (TME) of &gt;500 baseline resected APACT tumors to identify TME features that are associated with adverse outcomes. Methods Biopsy analyses included RNA-seq, DNA-seq, and multiplexed immunohistochemistry (mIHC). We quantified, for 533 patient biopsies, via mIHC the spatial arrangement of 7 immune cell types and 2 checkpoint markers relative to tumor and nontumor regions, and pairwise colocalization relative to each other. We identified combinations of biomarkers that correlate significantly with molecular signatures, predefined patient subsets, and overall survival (OS). Hazard ratios (HR) and p-values were computed via a Cox proportional hazards regression model which included resection and lymph node status as covariates. Significantly differentially-expressed transcripts were associated with biomarkers derived from the mIHC via unpaired t-test. Results Higher densities of CD8+ T cells within tumor regions correlated with longer OS (hazard ratio HR=0.76; p=0.03), and higher overall densities of CD163+ macrophages correlated with shorter OS (HR=1.44; p=0.006). We furthermore identified a patient subset (n=72) with a combination of higher CD8+ T cell and lower CD163+ macrophage densities that had a strikingly significant decreased HR of 0.46 (p=0.009). Moreover, patients with a high degree of spatial colocalization between CD8+ T cells and dual-positive CMAF+CD163+ M2-like macrophages observed a significant increased HR of 1.51 (p=0.0006), a biomarker only surpassed by nodal status in significance of correlation with OS (HR=1.9; p=0.00015). While this cellular colocalization was computed to be independent of cell densities, we found that the association of this colocalized pair of cell types with shorter OS was most significant for patients with lower overall CD8+ T cell densities (HR=1.84; p=0.0004). We further identified differentially regulated transcripts associated with this interaction and found specific putative ligand-receptor pairs that were also associated with lower OS. Conclusion A combination of greater infiltration of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells and lower infiltration of macrophages is associated with longer OS in the APACT trial. Moreover, the spatial colocalization between CD8+ T cells and CMAF+ M2 macrophages is associated with shorter OS. These findings were observed across both treatment arms of the study. Future investigation of this apparent interaction, and associated differentially expressed transcripts, may inform management of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and increase effectiveness of PDAC therapies.

Citation Format: David J. Reiss, Andrew Browne, Brian Fox, Alexander V. Ratushnyy, Maria Wang, Andrew V. Biankin, Thomas Lila. Spatial arrangements of immune cells of the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumor microenvironment correlated with outcomes in the phase 3 APACT trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer; 2022 Sep 13-16; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(22 Suppl):Abstract nr C085.