Genomic profiles of chromosome remodeling pathway and their correlation with TMB, MSI, PD-L1, and immune microenvironment in biliary tract tumors.

Abstract

e16181 Background: Immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy has become a promising first-line treatment for biliary tract tumor (BTC) patients. A previous clinical trial with a small sample size revealed that impaired functions of chromatin remodeling genes might be a potential predictive biomarker of combined immunotherapy for BTC. However, genomic profiles of chromosome remodeling pathway and their correlation with tumor mutation burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and immune microenvironment in Chinese BTC patients remain unknown. Methods: A total of 2031 BTC patients (cholangiocarcinoma [CCA], N=1476; gallbladder carcinoma [GBC], N=555) were included in this study, and their tumor tissue samples were subject to next generation sequencing using a 733-gene panel. Multiple immunofluorescence using for immune microenvironment related markers (including PD-1, PD-L1, CD8, CD68, CD163, CD3, CD4, CD20, CD56 and FoxP3) detection was conducted in 49 patients. Prognostic survival data were obtained from two clinical sequencing cohorts (CCA: ICGC-2017, N=417; GBC: MSK-2022, N=233) and were used to explore the association between chromatin remodeling genes mutation and prognosis. Results: In total, 57.9% (1175/2031) of BTC patients harbored alternations in genes involved in chromatin remodeling pathway and the top three alteration frequency somatic genes were ARID1A (19%), KMT2C (11%), ARID2/KMT2D/PBRM1 (8% each), respectively. The commonly alternation types were missense (48%), frameshift indel (25%) and nonsense (17%), respectively. The TMB level of altered group was significantly higher than wild group (median TMB, mutant-type vs. wild-type = 6.145 vs. 3.352 Muts/Mb, P<0.0001), but no significant difference was found in the PD-L1 expression level between the two groups. A total of 43 patients were identified as MSI-high, all of whom harbored alternations in genes involved in chromatin remodeling pathway. Compared with the wild group, the infiltration level of CD20+ B cells in tumor parenchyma was significantly higher in the altered group. Furthermore, there was no difference in overall survival (OS) between altered group and wild group (median OS, 18.99 vs. 20.97 months; HR=1.164 [95%CI: 0.9048-1.498], P=0.2360) in two clinical sequencing cohorts without immunotherapy. Conclusions: The results revealed the molecular basis of chromosome remodeling genes as the predictive biomarker of combined immunotherapy for BTC and exclude its effect on prognosis.