Early disappearance of tumor antigen-reactive T cells from peripheral blood correlates with superior clinical outcomes in melanoma under anti-PD-1 therapy

Jonas Bochem, Henning Zelba, Janine Spreuer, Teresa Amaral, Andrea Gaissler, Oltin T. Pop, Karolin Thiel, Can Yurttas, Daniel Soffel, Stephan Forchhammer, Tobias Sinnberg, Heike Niessner, Friedegund Meier, Patrick Terheyden, Alfred Königsrainer, Claus Garbe, Lukas Flatz, Graham Pawelec, Thomas K. Eigentler, Markus W. LöfflerBenjamin Weide, Kilian Wistuba-Hamprecht*

*Corresponding author for this work
7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background Anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibodies are now routinely administered for metastatic melanoma and for increasing numbers of other cancers, but still only a fraction of patients respond. Better understanding of the modes of action and predictive biomarkers for clinical outcome is urgently required. Cancer rejection is mostly T cell-mediated. We previously showed that the presence of NY-ESO-1-reactive and/or Melan-A-reactive T cells in the blood correlated with prolonged overall survival (OS) of patients with melanoma with a heterogeneous treatment background. Here, we investigated whether such reactive T cells can also be informative for clinical outcomes in metastatic melanoma under PD-1 immune-checkpoint blockade (ICB). Methods Peripheral blood T cell stimulation by NY-ESO-1 and Melan-A overlapping peptide libraries was assessed before and during ICB in two independent cohorts of a total of 111 patients with stage IV melanoma. In certain cases, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes could also be assessed for such responses. These were characterized using intracellular cytokine staining for interferon gamma (IFN- 3), tumor negrosis factor (TNF) and CD107a. Digital pathology analysis was performed to quantify NY-ESO-1 and Melan-A expression by tumors. Endpoints were OS and progression-free survival (PFS). Results The initial presence in the circulation of NY-ESO-1- or Melan-A-reactive T cells which became no longer detectable during ICB correlated with validated, prolonged PFS (HR:0.1; p>0.0001) and OS (HR:0.2; p=0.021). An evaluation of melanoma tissue from selected cases suggested a correlation between tumor-resident NY-ESO-1- and Melan-A-reactive T cells and disease control, supporting the notion of a therapy-associated sequestration of cells from the periphery to the tumor predominantly in those patients benefitting from ICB. Conclusions Our findings suggest a PD-1 blockade-dependent infiltration of melanoma-reactive T cells from the periphery into the tumor and imply that this seminally contributes to effective treatment.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere003439
JournalJournal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
Volume9
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21.12.2021

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