Identifying mutations in ctDNA to predict antibody-drug conjugate response in breast cancer.

Abstract

e13074 Background: Metastatic breast cancer (mBC) is a complex disease, and outcomes remain poor because new therapies are needed. A new class of drugs, antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), has shown effectiveness across all breast cancer subtypes. Yet FDA- approval for these therapies is restricted only to HER2 and triple-negative subtypes. Therefore, we urgently need to identify which patients, regardless of subtype, will respond to ADCs. The advent of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) offers a unique noninvasive method to capture breast cancer (BC) heterogeneity. Recently, ctDNA testing has been employed in clinical practice to guide targeted therapies for mBC, particularly in cases of hormone receptor positive (HR+) disease with mutations in PIK3CA and ESR1. The clinical implications to predict response to ADC therapy in BC remains unclear. Here we test the hypothesis that ctDNA can detect mutations that predict response to novel ADCs. Methods: We analyzed a subset of patients from the Dallas Metastatic Breast Cancer Study comprised of patients with mBC who underwent ctDNA testing using the Tempus xF liquid biopsy ctDNA sequencing panel. The data was analyzed from a single academic medical center between the initial year of ctDNA collection in 2019 to 2023. We identified detectable mutations from patients and addressed a relationship by using Metascape. Relevant signaling pathways were identified: APOBEC, ErbB signaling, p53 and Ras-MAPK pathway. Patients with triple negative, HER2, and HR BC were examined for ADC response and associated mutations. Survival analyses were estimated using Kaplan-Meier and Gehan Breslow Wilcoxon test for statistical analysis. Results: We identified 43 patients with HR+ mBC who had at least one mutation within the Ras-MAPK pathway and 10 of 43 received ADC therapy. Median survival of patients who received ADC therapy 58 months (n=10) vs not receiving ADC therapy 33 months (n=33) (p < 0.05). Of the ten patients who received ADC treatment, 60% had 1+ HER2 staining on tissue biopsy. 70% of patients received Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) and 30% received Sacituzumab govitecan (SG). SG was given to patients with negative HER2 staining on biopsy. Patients with at least one mutation within ABOBEC, ErbB signaling, and p53 pathways did not have statistically significant differences in mOS. Conclusions: In HR+ mBC, detection of mutated genes associated with the Ras-MAPK pathway by ctDNA was associated with a more favorable response when treated with ADCs. These findings are exciting because HR+ BCs are being targeted with ADCs regardless of HER2 or TROP2 expression, highlighting the need for new biomarkers to distinguish which HR+ patients to treat. Our retrospective analysis findings are limited by the number of patients with ctDNA testing and also timing of testing. Further studies are needed to solidify the observed correlation between Ras-MAPK pathway mutations and favorable response to ADC treatment.