Abstract CT044: Genomic correlates of clinical benefits from atezolizumab combined with bevacizumab vs. atezolizumab alone in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
Authors: Zhu Andrew X. , Guan Yinghui , Abbas Alexander R. , Koeppen Hartmut , Lu Shan , Hsu Chih-Hung , Lee Kyung-Hun , Lee Michael S. , He Aiwu Ruth , Mahipal Amit , Ding Beiying , Spahn Jessica , Verret Wendy , Ryoo Baek-Yeol , Wang Yulei 
Published: September 2020

Background: Atezolizumab (atezo) and bevacizumab (bev) combination therapy has demonstrated robust clinical activity in patients with unresectable HCC who have not received prior systemic therapy (Lee et al., APPLE 2019; Cheng et al., ESMO Asia 2019). In this exploratory analysis, we aimed to identify tumor-based molecular biomarkers that may be associated with clinical response or resistance to atezo + bev. We also investigated how VEGF blockade with bev could potentiate PD-L1 checkpoint inhibition with atezo in pts with advanced HCC. Methods: Archival tumor tissues or fresh biopsies taken prior to treatment were collected from HCC pts enrolled in the Phase 1b trial GO30140 (NCT02715531). Arm A (n = 104) was a single-arm evaluation of atezo + bev; Arm F (n = 119) was a randomized arm comparing atezo + bev with atezo. Whole-exome sequencing was carried out on these tumor tissues to determine tumor mutation burden (TMB). Gene expression in tumors was profiled by RNAseq analysis. The association between biomarker expression and clinical response (responders [R] vs. non-responders [NR]) or PFS was assessed by t-tests or Cox regression models, respectively. All p-values are descriptive. Results: In Arm A, 90/104 pts were biomarker evaluable. TMB was not associated with response to atezo + bev or PFS. In contrast, analysis of baseline tumor gene expression showed that pre-existing immunity appeared to be associated with clinical response and longer PFS, which included high expression of CD274 (PD-L1) (R vs. NR, p &lt; 2.1 × 10−5; PFS: HR = 0.42 [0.25-0.72]), and T effector signature (GZMB, PRF1, CXCL9) (R vs. NR, p &lt; 0.0004; PFS: HR = 0.46 [0.27-0.78]). Gene expression related to Notch pathway activation (i.e. high expression of HES1) appeared to be associated with lack of response to atezo + bev (p &lt; 0.039) and shorter PFS (HR = 2.1 [1.3-3.6]). In Arm F, 91/119 pts were biomarker evaluable. High expression of VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2; HR = 0.36 [0.16-0.81]), Treg (HR = 0.35 [0.15-0.82]), myeloid inflammation (HR = 0.43 [0.19-0.95]), and TREM1/MDSC signatures (HR = 0.43 [0.19-0.94]) was associated with longer PFS in patients treated with atezo + bev than in those treated with atezo alone. Analysis of 12 serial biopsy pairs confirmed reduced levels of VEGFR2 and Treg signatures after atezo + bev treatment. Conclusion: We identified candidate biomarkers for predicting response to atezo + bev in HCC. Furthermore, the findings in Arm F are consistent with previous preclinical studies supporting a multi-faceted role of VEGF/VEGFR signaling in promoting immune suppression in addition to angiogenesis. Overall, the data presented here further support the mechanistic hypotheses on how anti-VEGF may combine with immune checkpoint blockade to increase its clinical benefit. As these results are exploratory, future study is needed to confirm these findings in a larger population.

Citation Format: Andrew X. Zhu, Yinghui Guan, Alexander R. Abbas, Hartmut Koeppen, Shan Lu, Chih-Hung Hsu, Kyung-Hun Lee, Michael S. Lee, Aiwu Ruth He, Amit Mahipal, Beiying Ding, Jessica Spahn, Wendy Verret, Baek-Yeol Ryoo, Yulei Wang. Genomic correlates of clinical benefits from atezolizumab combined with bevacizumab vs. atezolizumab alone in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) [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 CT044.