Neoantigen-specific CD8 T cell responses in the peripheral blood following PD-L1 blockade might predict therapy outcome in metastatic urothelial carcinoma

CD8+ T cell reactivity towards tumor mutation-derived neoantigens is widely believed to facilitate the antitumor immunity induced by immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Here we show that broadening in the number of neoantigen-reactive CD8+ T cell (NART) populations between pre-treatment to 3-weeks post-treatment distinguishes patients with controlled disease compared to patients with progressive disease in metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) treated with PD-L1-blockade. The longitudinal analysis of peripheral CD8+ T cell recognition of patient-specific neopeptide libraries consisting of DNA barcode-labelled pMHC multimers in a cohort of 24 patients from the clinical trial NCT02108652 also shows that peripheral NARTs derived from patients with disease control are characterised by a PD1+ Ki67+ effector phenotype and increased CD39 levels compared to bystander bulk- and virus-antigen reactive CD8+ T cells. The study provides insights into NART characteristics following ICB and suggests that early-stage NART expansion and activation are associated with response to ICB in patients with mUC

Goal-Focused Emotion-Regulation Therapy (GET) in Young Adult Testicular Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Pilot Study

BackgroundYoung adult testicular cancer survivors experience adverse impacts after treatment. We developed Goal-focused Emotion-regulation Therapy (GET) to improve distress symptoms, emotion regulation, and goal navigation skills.PurposeThis pilot study examined GET versus an active control intervention in young adult survivors of testicular cancer.MethodsSeventy-five eligible survivors treated with chemotherapy were randomized to receive GET or Individual Supportive Listening (ISL). Study acceptability, engagement, and tolerability were examined, and intervention fidelity and therapeutic alliance were compared between arms. Preliminary efficacy was evaluated by effect sizes for between-group changes in primary (anxiety and depressive symptoms) and secondary (career confusion, goal navigation, and emotion regulation) outcomes from baseline to immediately and 3-month post-intervention.ResultsAmong the 38 men randomized to GET, 81.1% completed all study sessions compared with 82.4% of the 37 men assigned to ISL. Fidelity to the intervention was 87% in GET. Therapeutic alliance wassignificantly higher among those receiving GET versus ISL. Participants exhibited a medium group-by-time effect size with greater reductions in depressive (d = 0.45) and anxiety (d = 0.29) symptoms for those in GET versus ISL, with a similar pattern at 3 months for depressive (d = 0.46) and anxiety (d = 0.46) symptoms.ConclusionsGET is a feasible and acceptable intervention for reducing adverse outcomes after testicular cancer for young adults. Observed effect sizes preliminarily suggest meaningful change, though should be interpreted with caution in small samples. GET may be a developmentally-matched behavioral approach to improve psychosocial function in this cancer group.Clinical trial informationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT04150848. Registered on October 28, 2019

The Long PD-1 Receptor Binding Kinetics of Nivolumab May Increase Efficacy of Subsequent Therapy in Relapsed and Refractory Multiple Myeloma Patients

Abstract Introduction: Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) signaling suppresses the antigen driven activation of T cells upon interaction with its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2. The PD-1/PD-L1 axis is thought to mediate the resistance of multiple myeloma to conventional therapy (Tamura 2013; Paiva 2015). Nivolumab, a fully human IgG4 monoclonal PD-1 receptor-blocking antibody, has shown clinical activity in a variety of tumor types. Nivolumab has demonstrated a prolonged receptor binding kinetic lasting >100 days that may lead to an efficacy or toxicity signal in the post-treatment period. We therefore evaluated the response of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma to additional myeloma therapy received within 3 months of the end of nivolumab administration. Methods: The preliminary results of an open-label study that treated patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma using a dose escalation design (1 mg/kg and 3 mg/kg) of nivolumab administered every 2 weeks have been reported previously (NCT01592370, Lesokhin et al., ASH 2014). Here we will report responses and safety data using standard criteria to the next line of therapy received immediately after nivolumab. Results: 8 patients with multiple myeloma from the original open label study were treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The disease characteristics and efficacy results are shown in the table. 1 of 8 patients (12.5%) experienced progression while on therapy manifested by development of an isolated plasmacytoma. The patient received radiation and then resumed and completed 97 weeks of therapy with nivolumab. He is currently off therapy without any evidence of disease at 48 weeks after cessation of nivolumab. 3 of 8 patients (37.5%) achieved a partial response to the next line of treatment after nivolumab. 2 of 8 patients (25%) who were exposed and refractory to immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) received single-agent, low-dose lenalidomide as the next line of therapy and achieved stable disease lasting approximately 100 days after cessation of nivolumab followed by disease progression. 1 of 8 patients (12.5%) experienced progressive disease despite the next line of therapy, and 1 of 8 patients (12.5%) received an experimental treatment as the next line of therapy and was therefore not evaluable. No new drug-related adverse events occurred in the 3 months after completing treatment with nivolumab. Overall, 6 out of 8 patients derived clinical benefit from post-nivolumab therapy, an unusually high response rate for this population. Conclusions: In a small cohort of patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma, evaluation of response kinetics after cessation of nivolumab supports the notion that long PD-1 receptor binding kinetics may increase the efficacy of subsequent therapy without added toxicity. Larger studies are needed to confirm and expand our findings. Table. Patient Characteristics and Efficacy Age Sex ISS Cytogenetics Prior Lines ASCT IMiD E IMiD R Prot E Prot R Best Response to Nivolumab Next Line of Standard Therapy Best Response to Next Line 52 M 1 S 3 Y Y Y Y Y SD Carfilzomib, Cyclophosphamide, Dexamethasone PR 32 M 1 S 3 Y Y Y Y Y SD None* N/A 80 F 1 S 1 N Y N N N SD Lenalidomide PR 52 F 1 I 3 Y Y Y Y N SD Lenalidomide SD 62 M 1 H 1 Y Y N Y N PD Cyclophosphamide, Bortezomib, Dexamethasone PR 58 M 2 S 5 Y Y Y Y Y PD Lenalidomide SD 57 F 1 S 3 Y Y N Y Y PD None^ N/A 59 F 1 S 3 Y Y Y Y Y PD Lenalidomide, Bortezomib, Dexamethasone PD ISS=international staging system; S=standard cytogenetics; I=intermediate cytogenetics; H=high risk cytogenetics; ASCT=autologous stem cell transplant; IMiD E=IMiD exposed; IMiD R=IMiD refractory; Prot E=proteosome exposed; Prot R=proteosome refractory; PD=progressive disease; SD=stable disease; PR=partial response *Patient completed 97 weeks of nivolumab and continues untreated without any evidence of disease at 48 weeks after cessation of therapy ^Patient received treatment on an experimental protocol Disclosures Funt: Kite Pharma: Equity Ownership. Off Label Use: Nivolumab is FDA approved for use in patients with metastatic melanoma but not in patients with multiple myeloma. . Page:Celgene: Consultancy. Landgren:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy; BMJ Publishing: Consultancy; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy; BMJ Publishing: Honoraria; Medscape: Consultancy; Medscape: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria; International Myeloma Foundation: Research Funding; Onyx: Honoraria; Onyx: Research Funding; Onyx: Consultancy. Borrello:Celgene: Research Funding. Lesokhin:Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Aduro: Consultancy; Genentech: Research Funding; Efranat: Consultancy

Global Cancer Transcriptome Quantifies Repeat Element Polarization between Immunotherapy Responsive and T Cell Suppressive Classes

SUMMARY It has been posited that anti-tumoral innate activation is driven by derepression of endogenous repeats. We compared RNA sequencing protocols to assess repeat transcriptomes in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Although poly(A) selection efficiently detects coding genes, most non-coding genes, and limited subsets of repeats, it fails to capture overall repeat expression and co-expression. Alternatively, total RNA expression reveals distinct repeat co-expression subgroups and delivers greater dynamic changes, implying they may serve as better biomarkers of clinical outcomes. We show that endogenous retrovirus expression predicts immunotherapy response better than conventional immune signatures in one cohort yet is not predictive in another. Moreover, we find that global repeat derepression, including the HSATII satellite repeat, correlates with an immunosuppressive phenotype in colorectal and pancreatic tumors and validate in situ. In conclusion, we stress the importance of analyzing the full spectrum of repeat transcription to decode their role in tumor immunity

Global Cancer Transcriptome Quantifies Repeat Element Polarization between Immunotherapy Responsive and T Cell Suppressive Classes

Summary: It has been posited that anti-tumoral innate activation is driven by derepression of endogenous repeats. We compared RNA sequencing protocols to assess repeat transcriptomes in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Although poly(A) selection efficiently detects coding genes, most non-coding genes, and limited subsets of repeats, it fails to capture overall repeat expression and co-expression. Alternatively, total RNA expression reveals distinct repeat co-expression subgroups and delivers greater dynamic changes, implying they may serve as better biomarkers of clinical outcomes. We show that endogenous retrovirus expression predicts immunotherapy response better than conventional immune signatures in one cohort yet is not predictive in another. Moreover, we find that global repeat derepression, including the HSATII satellite repeat, correlates with an immunosuppressive phenotype in colorectal and pancreatic tumors and validate in situ. In conclusion, we stress the importance of analyzing the full spectrum of repeat transcription to decode their role in tumor immunity. : Solovyov et al. compare protocols used in tumor transcriptional profiling. They show the most widely used poly(A) protocol fails to detect several classes of repeat RNAs. In contrast, repeat expression in total RNA sequencing can correlate with the cancer-immune phenotypes and patient responses to immunotherapy. Keywords: RNA-seq, ERV, HSATII, innate immunity, microenvironment, repetitive elements, immunotherapy, cancer immunit

Escape from nonsense-mediated decay associates with anti-tumor immunogenicity

Frameshift insertion/deletions (fs-indels) are an infrequent but highly immunogenic mutation subtype. Although fs-indels are degraded through the nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) pathway, we hypothesise that some fs-indels escape degradation and elicit anti-tumor immune responses. Using allele-specific expression analysis, expressed fs-indels are enriched in genomic positions predicted to escape NMD, and associated with higher protein expression, consistent with degradation escape (NMD-escape). Across four independent melanoma cohorts, NMD-escape mutations are significantly associated with clinical-benefit to checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy (Pmeta = 0.0039). NMD-escape mutations are additionally found to associate with clinical-benefit in the low-TMB setting. Furthermore, in an adoptive cell therapy treated melanoma cohort, NMD-escape mutation count is the most significant biomarker associated with clinical-benefit. Analysis of functional T cell reactivity screens from personalized vaccine studies shows direct evidence of fs-indel derived neoantigens eliciting immune response, particularly those with highly elongated neo open reading frames. NMD-escape fs-indels represent an attractive target for biomarker optimisation and immunotherapy design