Abstract P1-10-20: Serial TILs: Evaluating the role of mid-treatment tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) in predicting pathologic complete response (pCR) in early-stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC)
Authors: Abuhadra Nour , Hess Kenneth , Litton Jennifer , Rauch Gaiane , Thompson Alastair , Lim Bora , Adrada Beatriz , Mittendorf Elizabeth , Damodaran Senthil , Candelaria Rosalind , Arun Banu , Yang Wei Tse , Ueno Naoto , Santiago Lumarie , Murthy Rashmi , Ibrahim Nuhad , Aysegul Sahin , Symmans William , Huo Lei , Moulder Stacy 
Published: March 2020

Introduction High levels of TIL at baseline are associated with higher pCR rates and better overall survival in TNBC. Recent studies have also indicated that higher TIL in post-NACT residual disease in TNBC are an important independent predictor of improved survival. We evaluated the role of mid-treatment (post-AC; Adriamycin/Cyclophosphamide) TIL in predicting pCR rates in early-stage TNBC. Methods Of 242 patients with stage I-III TNBC enrolled in the ARTEMIS trial (NCT02276443), 156 patients had pre-AC TIL and pCR status available for this analysis. Both pre-and post-AC TIL counts were available in 29 patients. Post-AC TIL counts for the remaining patients were imputed using linear regression with age, race, stage III, vimentin &gt;50% and post-AC tumor volume reduction. Using these imputed TIL counts we evaluated the association of post-AC TIL with pCR. We also evaluated the change in TIL before and after treatment with AC. Results At baseline the median TIL count was 10% (n=156). In the post-AC samples, the median TIL count was 5%. Using imputed TIL counts, we did not conclude that post-AC TIL was associated with pCR (p= 0.28). Using a cut-point of 15% TIL, our analysis showed that baseline TIL is more strongly correlated with pCR than post-AC TIL (Table 1). In our univariable logistic regression, both baseline TIL and the difference in TIL pre-and post- treatment were significantly associated with pCR (p= 0.0015 and p=0.0068, respectively), however in the multivariable analysis only baseline TIL was significant. Our analysis did show that a decrease in TIL from pre- to post-treatment was significantly associated with pCR (p=0.022). However, this measure was not significant in our logistic regression model when pre-TIL was also included. Conclusion Higher pre-treatment TIL correlated more strongly with pCR rate when compared to post-AC TIL. Pre-treatment high TIL was associated with pCR regardless of changes in TIL pre and post treatment.

Table 1. Changes in TIL before and after treatmentBaseline TILPost-AC TILN#pCR (%)LowLow6217 (27%)LowHigh4012 (30%)HighLow2513 (52%)HighHigh2916 (55%)TIL; Low: &lt;15, High &gt;15

Citation Format: Nour Abuhadra, Kenneth Hess, Jennifer Litton, Gaiane Rauch, Alastair Thompson, Bora Lim, Beatriz Adrada, Elizabeth Mittendorf, Senthil Damodaran, Rosalind Candelaria, Banu Arun, Wei Tse Yang, Naoto Ueno, Lumarie Santiago, Rashmi Murthy, Nuhad Ibrahim, Sahin Aysegul, William Symmans, Lei Huo, Stacy Moulder. Serial TILs: Evaluating the role of mid-treatment tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) in predicting pathologic complete response (pCR) in early-stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-10-20.