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Beln Sierra-Rodero



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    FP12 - Tumor Biology and Systems Biology - Basic and Translational Science (ID 188)

    • Event: WCLC 2020
    • Type: Posters (Featured)
    • Track: Tumor Biology and Systems Biology - Basic and Translational Science
    • Presentations: 1
    • Moderators:
    • Coordinates: 1/28/2021, 00:00 - 00:00, ePoster Hall
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      FP12.09 - Molecular Insight into NADIM Clinical Trial: Potential Immune Biomarkers of Pathological Response for NSCLC Patients. (ID 3552)

      00:00 - 00:00  |  Author(s): Beln Sierra-Rodero

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Introduction

      Many studies have demonstrated that chemo-immunotherapy is a promising approach for NSCLC patients but still exists a lack of prediction biomarkers of survival. We have recently showed that pathological response is a surrogate of progression free survival (PFS) including infiltrating immune cells as potential biomarker of pathological response in NADIM clinical trial (Provencio et al., 2020. Lancet Oncology, in press).

      New biomarkers in peripheral blood are being described, focused on the immune system response. Preliminary data was presented at WCLC 2019 however additional results are included in this report. Here we describe the effect of chemo-immune neoadjuvant treatment on resectable NSCLC stage III patients’ immune system and describe blood biomarkers that could help to identify responders to this combination therapy.

      Methods

      Peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and plasma from NADIM clinical trial patients before and after chemo-immune neoadjuvant treatment were used. Phenotyping and activation levels of immune cell populations were analyzed by flow cytometry, focused on CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells, T cells NK like and NK cells. Moreover, characterization of the immune response was evaluated by a cytokine array.

      Clinical evaluation of pathological response, classified patients in 3 groups, complete (CPR, 0% tumor cells), major (MPR, <10% viable tumor) and incomplete (IPR, >10% viable tumor). Wilcoxon and Kruskall-Wallis statistic tests were used.

      Results

      Even though we have previously described a decrease of T lymphocytes on tissue after treatment, we do not see these changes on blood. Thus, percentages of PBMCs (T cells, B cells, NK cells and macrophages) did not vary after neoadjuvant treatment. However, lower levels of activated CD4 T cells and NK cells were observed. Interestingly, this decrease was exclusively statistically significant for patients who achieved a CPR, but no differences were observed for MPR or IPR. As expected, detection of PD1+ cells after neoadjuvant Nivolumab (anti-PD1) treatment was almost completely abrogated, however, a trend for higher PD1+ cell proportions was observed in patients achieving CPR at diagnosis.

      Furthermore, many cytokines involved in immune response and described as putative biomarkers for immunotherapy in NSCLC as IL-2, IL-15, IL-6, IL-13 or IFN-gamma, among others, were decreased after neoadjuvant treatment. Notably, stratifying by pathological responses, this decrease was statistically significant only for non-complete responses.

      Conclusion

      The analysis of immune cell markers on blood samples could be a source for potential surrogate markers of pathological response to neoadjuvant treatment on NSCLC patients.

      Similarly, to what occurs in tissue, CPRs showed differences compared to MPR or IPR in some blood markers, both at the cellular and cytokine level. Thus, after treatment, patients achieving CPRs do not seem to reduce their levels of cytokines such as IL-2, IL-15, IL-6, IL-13 or IFN-g associated with anti-tumor response, but they do reduce their levels of activated CD4 and NK cells

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    P60 - Tumor Biology and Systems Biology - Basic and Translational Science - Immune Bio (ID 198)

    • Event: WCLC 2020
    • Type: Posters
    • Track: Tumor Biology and Systems Biology - Basic and Translational Science
    • Presentations: 1
    • Moderators:
    • Coordinates: 1/28/2021, 00:00 - 00:00, ePoster Hall
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      P60.11 - TCR Repertoire Predicts Pathological Response in NSCLC Patients Receiving Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy from NADIM Trial (ID 3417)

      00:00 - 00:00  |  Author(s): Beln Sierra-Rodero

      • Abstract
      • Slides

      Introduction

      Characterization of the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire has become a novel approach to monitor immunotherapy responses, however there is lack of knowledge about its clinical relevance as predictive biomarker of pathological response in neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy. For this purpose, we analysed samples from the NADIM study (NCT03081689), in which resectable stage IIIA NSCLC patients were treated with neoadjuvant Paclitaxel + Carboplatin + Nivolumab for 3 cycles, achieving a 63% of complete pathologic responses (CPR). PD-L1 TPS and TMB as CPR biomarkers showed AUC ROC of 0.77 and 0.55, respectively, reinforcing the need for new biomarkers (Provencio, M. et al. 2020).

      Methods

      TCR repertoires from primary tumours or lymph nodes of 19 NSCLC patients were obtained, at both time points: diagnosis and after neoadjuvant treatment. TCR repertoire was analysed in terms of convergence, diversity, evenness and clonal space, defined as the summed frequency of clones belonging to a frecuency group (top 1%, top 1% to 2%, 2% to 5%, and >5%) relative to the total T-cell repertoire. The results were correlated with pathological response groups and ROC curve analysis was performed to test if TCR repertoire-derived parameters could identify patients with CPR.

      Results

      There were no statistically significant differences observed in TCR repertoire in biopsy samples in terms of diversity (p = 0,797) or convergence (p = 0,202) between the three pathological response groups or between biopsy and surgery samples. However, we observed differences in terms of evenness in biopsy samples between the pathologic response groups (p=0.037), which were lower in those patients who achieved CPR. The AUC for evenness was 0.844 (IC: 0.667-1.000), p=0,011. An evenness value of <0.8639 showed a sensitivity of 50% and specificity of 100% identifying patients with CPR.

      Moreover, the clonal space of the TOP 1% clones in diagnostic samples was higher in patients that achieved CPR (p=0.002). The AUC of this novel biomarker was 0.9667 (IC: 0.897-1.036) (p=0.0006). A TOP 1% clonal space higher than 0.1607 showed a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 88.9% identifying patients with CPR.

      nadim trasl_tcr_image.jpg

      Conclusion

      Our results support the association between the uneven distribution of T-lymphocytes clones proportions present in the tissue at diagnosis and response to chemoimmunotherapy. Specifically, higher clonal space occupied by the TOP 1% clones seems to outperform PD-L1 and TMB as predictive biomarker of CPR in NSCLC patients receiving neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy.

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