Cancer Cell
Volume 35, Issue 2, 11 February 2019, Pages 238-255.e6
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Article
Distinct Immune Cell Populations Define Response to Anti-PD-1 Monotherapy and Anti-PD-1/Anti-CTLA-4 Combined Therapy

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Highlights

  • Activated T cell signatures/populations drive response to anti-PD-1-based therapies

  • EOMES+CD69+CD45RO+ effector memory T cells are associated with response

  • EOMES+CD69+CD45RO+ expression is associated with longer PFS and tumor shrinkage

  • Non-responders with TIL-hot tumors express other immune drug targets

Summary

Cancer immunotherapies provide survival benefits in responding patients, but many patients fail to respond. Identifying the biology of treatment response and resistance are a priority to optimize drug selection and improve patient outcomes. We performed transcriptomic and immune profiling on 158 tumor biopsies from melanoma patients treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy (n = 63) or combined anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 (n = 57). These data identified activated T cell signatures and T cell populations in responders to both treatments. Further mass cytometry analysis identified an EOMES+CD69+CD45RO+ effector memory T cell phenotype that was significantly more abundant in responders to combined immunotherapy compared with non-responders (n = 18). The gene expression profile of this population was associated with longer progression-free survival in patients treated with single agent and greater tumor shrinkage in both treatments.

Keywords

melanoma
immunotherapy
immune checkpoint inhibitors
EOMES
anti-PD-1
anti-CTLA-4
predictive biomarkers
combination therapy
RNA-seq
resistance mechanisms

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These authors contributed equally

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