Supplementary Figure 4 from PD-L1 Expression and Clinical Outcomes to Cabozantinib, Everolimus, and Sunitinib in Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: Analysis of the Randomized Clinical Trials METEOR and CABOSUN
posted on 2023-03-31, 21:09authored byAbdallah Flaifel, Wanling Xie, David A. Braun, Miriam Ficial, Ziad Bakouny, Amin H. Nassar, Rebecca B. Jennings, Bernard Escudier, Daniel J. George, Robert J. Motzer, Michael J. Morris, Thomas Powles, Evelyn Wang, Ying Huang, Gordon J. Freeman, Toni K. Choueiri, Sabina Signoretti
Immune cell density by PD-L1 expression
Funding
NIH
NCI
Harvard Medical School and the Trust Family
History
ARTICLE ABSTRACT
Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) status by IHC is prognostic in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), and its role as a potential predictive biomarker is under investigation. Using tumor tissue from the METEOR (NCT01865747) and CABOSUN (NCT01835158) clinical trials, we explored whether PD-L1 expression and the extent of the immune cell infiltrate can serve as prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers for cabozantinib and other targeted agents.
IHC double staining for PD-L1 and CD45/CD163 (immune cell markers) was performed on tumor tissue from METEOR (n = 306) and CABOSUN (n = 110) clinical trials. Immune cell density and MET expression levels were also analyzed. Our primary aim was to correlate progression-free survival (PFS) by independent central review with PD-L1 status in patients treated with cabozantinib, everolimus (METEOR), or sunitinib (CABOSUN). Overall survival (OS) was also interrogated.
Tumor cell (TC) PD-L1 expression (≥1% cutoff) was detected in 29% and 23% of tumors from patients in the METEOR and CABOSUN trials, respectively. On univariate analysis, patients with PD-L1–positive TC had poorer PFS and OS than patients with PD-L1–negative TC on both trials, independent of therapy. On multivariable analysis and when combining the two trials, the association between TC PD-L1 expression and OS was statistically significant for all patients (P = 0.034) and for patients treated with cabozantinib only (P = 0.038). Cabozantinib was associated with improved PFS (HR < 0.70) and OS (HR < 0.85) compared with everolimus and sunitinib irrespective of PD-L1 expression.
Higher PD-L1 expression results in worse clinical outcomes in mRCC treated with targeted therapy. Furthermore, PD-L1 expression is not predictive of response to cabozantinib therapy.