Association of host immune signatures with response to immunotherapy-based regimens in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Abstract

4550 Background: Treatment options for mRCC have evolved to include VEGF targeted therapies (VEGF-TT), immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), or combinations of both. The interaction between the tumor and its immune microenvironment has been shown to influence clinical outcomes in patients treated with immunotherapy-based regimens. The aim of this study was to characterize the T-cell and B-cell immune repertoires in patients with mRCC treated with VEGF-TT, ICI or a combination of both, and evaluate their associations with clinical outcomes. Methods: We identified patients with mRCC at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute treated with VEGF-TT, ICI or both, and for whom tumor and/or blood samples were available. Bulk RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and T-cell receptor sequencing (TCR-seq) were performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), collected before and during therapy. Bulk RNA-seq was additionally performed on available pre-treatment primary tumor samples. Immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) isotypes were inferred from bulk RNA-seq data using TRUST4. Parameters of the T-cell and B-cell repertoires were evaluated in responders vs. non-responders to systemic therapies, and between pre- and on-treatment samples within patient subgroups. Results: In total, blood (PBMC) samples from 386 patients were available across all treatment cohorts. Following quality-control, TCR-seq and RNA-seq data were available for 367 and 134 patient samples, respectively. Responders to ICI-based regimens (ICI or VEGF-TT+ICI) presented a trend towards an increased baseline (pre-treatment) TCR clonality as compared to non-responders (p=0.06), corresponding to a less polyclonal T cell repertoire in responders at baseline. No significant changes in clonality were seen between pre- and on-treatment samples among responders to ICI regimens (p=0.14), as opposed to non-responders where a significant increase was identified (p=0.001). The analysis of IgH isotypes in baseline blood samples showed higher fraction of IgG1 in responders (vs. non-responders) to ICI regimens (p=0.01). This was further confirmed in the analysis of IgH isotypes inferred from tumor samples (p=0.04). No significant differences in IgH isotype fractions were identified between responders and non-responders to VEGF-TT. Conclusions: We were successfully able to characterize T-cell receptor and IgH repertoires in a large cohort of patients with mRCC and evaluate their associations with ICI response. Our results show that baseline TCR clonality and IgG1 antibody fraction are associated with the response to ICI regimens, suggesting a potential role for immune biomarker development.