Genomic Features of Response to Combination Immunotherapy in Patients with Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Publication date: Available online 12 April 2018
Source:Cancer Cell
Author(s): Matthew D. Hellmann, Tavi Nathanson, Hira Rizvi, Benjamin C. Creelan, Francisco Sanchez-Vega, Arun Ahuja, Ai Ni, Jacki B. Novik, Levi M.B. Mangarin, Mohsen Abu-Akeel, Cailian Liu, Jennifer L. Sauter, Natasha Rekhtman, Eliza Chang, Margaret K. Callahan, Jamie E. Chaft, Martin H. Voss, Megan Tenet, Xue-Mei Li, Kelly Covello, Andrea Renninger, Patrik Vitazka, William J. Geese, Hossein Borghaei, Charles M. Rudin, Scott J. Antonia, Charles Swanton, Jeff Hammerbacher, Taha Merghoub, Nicholas McGranahan, Alexandra Snyder, Jedd D. Wolchok
Combination immune checkpoint blockade has demonstrated promising benefit in lung cancer, but predictors of response to combination therapy are unknown. Using whole-exome sequencing to examine non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with PD-1 plus CTLA-4 blockade, we found that high tumor mutation burden (TMB) predicted improved objective response, durable benefit, and progression-free survival. TMB was independent of PD-L1 expression and the strongest feature associated with efficacy in multivariable analysis. The low response rate in TMB low NSCLCs demonstrates that combination immunotherapy does not overcome the negative predictive impact of low TMB. This study demonstrates the association between TMB and benefit to combination immunotherapy in NSCLC. TMB should be incorporated in future trials examining PD-(L)1 with CTLA-4 blockade in NSCLC.

Teaser

Hellmann et al. examine non-small-cell lung cancers treated with combined PD-1 and CTLA-4 blockade using whole-exome sequencing and find that high tumor mutation burden is the strongest feature associated with improved objective response, durable benefit, and progression-free survival in multivariable analysis.


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