TY - JOUR
T1 - Association of High Tumor Mutation Burden in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers with Increased Immune Infiltration and Improved Clinical Outcomes of PD-L1 Blockade Across PD-L1 Expression Levels
AU - Ricciuti, Biagio
AU - Wang, Xinan
AU - Alessi, Joao V.
AU - Rizvi, Hira
AU - Mahadevan, Navin R.
AU - Li, Yvonne Y.
AU - Polio, Andrew
AU - Lindsay, James
AU - Umeton, Renato
AU - Sinha, Rileen
AU - Vokes, Natalie I.
AU - Recondo, Gonzalo
AU - Lamberti, Giuseppe
AU - Lawrence, Marissa
AU - Vaz, Victor R.
AU - Leonardi, Giulia C.
AU - Plodkowski, Andrew J.
AU - Gupta, Hersh
AU - Cherniack, Andrew D.
AU - Tolstorukov, Michael Y.
AU - Sharma, Bijaya
AU - Felt, Kristen D.
AU - Gainor, Justin F.
AU - Ravi, Arvind
AU - Getz, Gad
AU - Schalper, Kurt A.
AU - Henick, Brian
AU - Forde, Patrick
AU - Anagnostou, Valsamo
AU - Jänne, Pasi A.
AU - Van Allen, Eliezer M.
AU - Nishino, Mizuki
AU - Sholl, Lynette M.
AU - Christiani, David C.
AU - Lin, Xihong
AU - Rodig, Scott J.
AU - Hellmann, Matthew D.
AU - Awad, Mark M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Importance: Although tumor mutation burden (TMB) has been explored as a potential biomarker of immunotherapy efficacy in solid tumors, there still is a lack of consensus about the optimal TMB threshold that best discriminates improved outcomes of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy among patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Objectives: To determine the association between increasing TMB levels and immunotherapy efficacy across clinically relevant programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) levels in patients with NSCLC. Design, Setting, and Participants: This multicenter cohort study included patients with advanced NSCLC treated with immunotherapy who received programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) or PD-L1 inhibition in the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and in the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)/Mark Foundation data sets. Clinicopathological and genomic data were collected from patients between September 2013 and September 2020. Data analysis was performed from November 2021 to February 2022. Exposures: Treatment with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition without chemotherapy. Main Outcomes and Measures: Association of TMB levels with objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Results: In the entire cohort of 1552 patients with advanced NSCLC who received PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, the median (range) age was 66 (22-92) years, 830 (53.5%) were women, and 1347 (86.8%) had cancer with nonsquamous histologic profile. A regression tree modeling ORR as a function of TMB identified 2 TMB groupings in the discovery cohort (MSKCC), defined as low TMB (≤19.0 mutations per megabase) and high TMB (>19.0 mutations per megabase), which were associated with increasing improvements in ORR, PFS, and OS in the discovery cohort and in 2 independent cohorts (DFCI and SU2C/Mark Foundation). These TMB levels also were associated with significant improvements in outcomes of immunotherapy in each PD-L1 tumor proportion score subgroup of less than 1%, 1% to 49%, and 50% or higher. The ORR to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition was as high as 57% in patients with high TMB and PD-L1 expression 50% or higher and as low as 8.7% in patients with low TMB and PD-L1 expression less than 1%. Multiplexed immunofluorescence and transcriptomic profiling revealed that high TMB levels were associated with increased CD8-positive, PD-L1-positive T-cell infiltration, increased PD-L1 expression on tumor and immune cells, and upregulation of innate and adaptive immune response signatures. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that increasing TMB levels are associated with immune cell infiltration and an inflammatory T-cell-mediated response, resulting in increased sensitivity to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in NSCLC across PD-L1 expression subgroups.
AB - Importance: Although tumor mutation burden (TMB) has been explored as a potential biomarker of immunotherapy efficacy in solid tumors, there still is a lack of consensus about the optimal TMB threshold that best discriminates improved outcomes of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy among patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Objectives: To determine the association between increasing TMB levels and immunotherapy efficacy across clinically relevant programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) levels in patients with NSCLC. Design, Setting, and Participants: This multicenter cohort study included patients with advanced NSCLC treated with immunotherapy who received programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) or PD-L1 inhibition in the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and in the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)/Mark Foundation data sets. Clinicopathological and genomic data were collected from patients between September 2013 and September 2020. Data analysis was performed from November 2021 to February 2022. Exposures: Treatment with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition without chemotherapy. Main Outcomes and Measures: Association of TMB levels with objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Results: In the entire cohort of 1552 patients with advanced NSCLC who received PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, the median (range) age was 66 (22-92) years, 830 (53.5%) were women, and 1347 (86.8%) had cancer with nonsquamous histologic profile. A regression tree modeling ORR as a function of TMB identified 2 TMB groupings in the discovery cohort (MSKCC), defined as low TMB (≤19.0 mutations per megabase) and high TMB (>19.0 mutations per megabase), which were associated with increasing improvements in ORR, PFS, and OS in the discovery cohort and in 2 independent cohorts (DFCI and SU2C/Mark Foundation). These TMB levels also were associated with significant improvements in outcomes of immunotherapy in each PD-L1 tumor proportion score subgroup of less than 1%, 1% to 49%, and 50% or higher. The ORR to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition was as high as 57% in patients with high TMB and PD-L1 expression 50% or higher and as low as 8.7% in patients with low TMB and PD-L1 expression less than 1%. Multiplexed immunofluorescence and transcriptomic profiling revealed that high TMB levels were associated with increased CD8-positive, PD-L1-positive T-cell infiltration, increased PD-L1 expression on tumor and immune cells, and upregulation of innate and adaptive immune response signatures. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that increasing TMB levels are associated with immune cell infiltration and an inflammatory T-cell-mediated response, resulting in increased sensitivity to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in NSCLC across PD-L1 expression subgroups.
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U2 - 10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.1981
DO - 10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.1981
M3 - Article
C2 - 35708671
AN - SCOPUS:85132397536
SN - 2374-2437
VL - 8
SP - 1160
EP - 1168
JO - JAMA Oncology
JF - JAMA Oncology
IS - 8
ER -