Abstract PO5-06-06: Tumor/stromal expression of CD3/CD8/PD-1/PD-L1 and overall survival (OS) in patients (pts) with metastatic (met) HER2+ breast cancer (BC)
Authors: Denis Collins, Janet McCormack, Laura Ivers, Jose Javier Berenguer-Pina, Jo Ballot, Cecily Quinn, Darko Skrobo, Alex Eustace, Naomi Walsh, Aurelie Fabre, John Crown
Journal: Cancer Research (2024)

Abstract Background: The “Thousand Patient HER-2 database” project at Saint Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) Dublin contains a cohort of met HER2+ BC pts treated with trastuzumab, with OS ranging from short term to durable complete response (never relapsed). While the majority of pts progress on treatment, higher stromal tumor immune infiltrate has been associated with longer OS in met HER2+ BC. Using the SVUH database, we have identified a cohort of met HER2+ BC pts that received trastuzumab and have a broad OS range (0.3 months (mos) to 200.9 mos). This study examines the tumor and stromal levels of pan T cell marker CD3, cytotoxic T cell marker CD8, and immune checkpoints PD-L1 and PD-1 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in primary and met samples from this cohort. Methods: Clinico-pathological data was available for formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens (n=45 primary, n=25 matched met biopsies). IHC staining was conducted for CD3 (Agilent IR50361-2), CD8 (Agilent IR62361-2), PD-L1, (Agilent M365329-2), and PD-1 (Roche 07099029001). A DAKO Link 48 Autostainer was utilised for staining, incorporating positive (tonsil tissue) and negative controls (isotype controls). Slide processing used an Aperio AT2 Digital Slide Scanner (Leica Biosystems), Aperio ImageScope 12.4 software (Leica Biosystems) and QuPath analysis software (University of Edinburgh). Following annotation of tumor areas, an algorithm was trained to identify immune cells and designate them as tumor or stromal. Data was expressed as the number of positively stained cells/mm2 tissue. A median cut-off was applied to denote “high” and “low” expression for CD3 and CD8. For PD-1 and PD-L1, samples with ≥ 1 stained cell/mm2 were designated as positive (pos) and samples with zero stained cells as negative (neg). The Kaplan Meier method was utilised for survival studies. A paired Student’s t test was utilised for primary vs metastatic site comparisons. Results: 51.1% of primary samples displayed high CD3 (23/45) and CD8 (23/45) expression in both the stromal and tumor compartments. Within the tumor compartment, 18.6% (8/43) of samples were pos for PD-L1 expression, and 57.8% (26/45) were pos for PD-1 expression. In the stromal compartment, 30.2% (13/43) of samples were pos for PD-L1 expression, and 68.9% (31/45) were pos for PD-1 expression. High tumor levels of CD3 (median OS CD3 high 113.4 mos vs CD3 low 7.9 mos, HR 0.2938 (95% CI 0.130-0.618), p=0.0012) and CD8 (median OS CD8 high 73.9 mos vs CD8 low 10.8 mos, HR 0.4764 (95% CI 0.238-0.954), p=0.0365), but not stromal levels of these markers, were associated with improved OS. There were no significant differences in CD3, CD8, PD-1 and PD-L1 levels between matched primary and met samples (p &amp;gt;0.05). Tumor, but not stromal, PD-L1 expression was associated with longer OS (HR 0.3120 (95% CI 0.146-0.667), p=0.0027). Interestingly, stromal PD-1 expression, but not tumor PD-1 expression, was also associated with longer OS (median OS PD-1 pos 64.7 mos vs. PD-1 neg 5.6 mos, HR 0.158 (95% CI 0.060-0.411), p=0.0002). Conclusion: Our results report a link between OS and tumor (CD3+, CD8+ and PD-L1+)/stromal (PD-1+) immune cell infiltrate in met HER2+ BC patients treated with trastuzumab. Further expansion of this preliminary dataset is warranted. Citation Format: Denis Collins, Janet McCormack, Laura Ivers, Jose Javier Berenguer-Pina, Jo Ballot, Cecily Quinn, Darko Skrobo, Alex Eustace, Naomi Walsh, Aurelie Fabre, John Crown. Tumor/stromal expression of CD3/CD8/PD-1/PD-L1 and overall survival (OS) in patients (pts) with metastatic (met) HER2+ breast cancer (BC) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO5-06-06.