Title
Correlative analyses of the SARC028 trial reveal an association between sarcoma-associated immune infiltrate and response to pembrolizumab
Date Issued
15 March 2020
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Keung E.Z.
Burgess M.
Parra E.R.
Rodrigues-Canales J.
Bolejack V.
Van Tine B.A.
Schuetze S.M.
Attia S.
Riedel R.F.
Hu J.
Okuno S.H.
Priebat D.A.
Movva S.
Davis L.E.
Reed D.R.
Reuben A.
Roland C.L.
Reinke D.
Lazar A.J.
Wang W.L.
Wargo J.A.
Tawbi H.A.
University of Texas
Publisher(s)
American Association for Cancer Research Inc.
Abstract
Purpose: We recently reported a 17.5% objective RECIST 1.1 response rate in a phase II study of pembrolizumab in patients with advanced sarcoma (SARC028). The majority of responses occurred in undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLPS). We sought to determine whether we can identify immune features that correlate with clinical outcomes from tumor tissues obtained pre- and on-treatment. Patients and Methods: Pretreatment (n ¼ 78) and 8-week on-treatment (n ¼ 68) tumor biopsies were stained for PD-L1 and multiplex immunofluorescence panels. The density of positive cells was quantified to determine associations with anti-PD-1 response. Results: Patients that responded to pembrolizumab were more likely to have higher densities of activated T cells (CD8þ CD3þ PD-1þ) and increased percentage of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) expressing PD-L1 pre-treatment compared with non-responders. Pre-treatment tumors from responders also exhibited higher densities of effector memory cytotoxic T cells and regulatory T cells compared with non-responders. In addition, higher density of cytotoxic tumor-infiltrating T cells at baseline correlated with a better progression-free survival (PFS). Conclusions: We show that quantitative assessments of CD8þ CD3þ PD-1þ T cells, percentage of TAMs expressing PD-L1, and other T-cell densities correlate with sarcoma response to pembrolizumab and improved PFS. Our findings support that multiple cell types present at the start of treatment may enhance tumor regression following anti-PD-1 therapy in specific advanced sarcomas. Efforts to confirm the activity of pembrolizumab in an expansion cohort of patients with UPS/DDLPS are underway.
Start page
1258
End page
1266
Volume
26
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Oncología
Farmacología, Farmacia
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85081946028
PubMed ID
Source
Clinical Cancer Research
ISSN of the container
10780432
Sponsor(s)
National Cancer Institute - P30CA008748 - NCI
This study was funded by the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration, Pittsburgh Cure Sarcoma, Merck, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (H. Tawbi). E.Z. Keung was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant T32 CA009599. We thank the patients and their families, the investigators, and participating study teams.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus