Supplementary Figure S5 from Integrated Multimodal Analyses of DNA Damage Response and Immune Markers as Predictors of Response in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in the TNT Trial (NCT00532727)
posted on 2023-09-15, 08:21authored byHolly Tovey, Orsolya Sipos, Joel S. Parker, Katherine A. Hoadley, Jelmar Quist, Sarah Kernaghan, Lucy Kilburn, Roberto Salgado, Sherene Loi, Richard D. Kennedy, Ioannis Roxanis, Patrycja Gazinska, Sarah E. Pinder, Judith Bliss, Charles M. Perou, Syed Haider, Anita Grigoriadis, Andrew Tutt, Maggie Chon U. Cheang
Heatmap showing clustering of all module scores filtered for a significant interaction with treatment. Our original clusters are shown against the new clusters at the top of the heatmap.
Funding
Cancer Research UK (CRUK)
Breast Cancer Now (BCN)
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
United States Department of Health and Human Services
The TNT trial (NCT00532727) showed no evidence of carboplatin superiority over docetaxel in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC), but carboplatin benefit was observed in the germline BRCA1/2 mutation subgroup. Broader response-predictive biomarkers are needed. We explored the predictive ability of DNA damage response (DDR) and immune markers.
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were evaluated for 222 of 376 patients. Primary tumors (PT) from 186 TNT participants (13 matched recurrences) were profiled using total RNA sequencing. Four transcriptional DDR-related and 25 immune-related signatures were evaluated. We assessed their association with objective response rate (ORR) and progression-free survival (PFS). Conditional inference forest clustering was applied to integrate multimodal data. The biology of subgroups was characterized by 693 gene expression modules and other markers.
Transcriptional DDR-related biomarkers were not predictive of ORR to either treatment overall. Changes from PT to recurrence were demonstrated; in chemotherapy-naïve patients, transcriptional DDR markers separated carboplatin responders from nonresponders (P values = 0.017; 0.046). High immune infiltration was associated with docetaxel ORR (interaction P values < 0.05). Six subgroups were identified; the immune-enriched cluster had preferential docetaxel response [62.5% (D) vs. 29.4% (C); P = 0.016]. The immune-depleted cluster had preferential carboplatin response [8.0% (D) vs. 40.0% (C); P = 0.011]. DDR-related subgroups were too small to assess ORR.
High immune features predict docetaxel response, and high DDR signature scores predict carboplatin response in treatment-naïve mTNBC. Integrating multimodal DDR and immune-related markers identifies subgroups with differential treatment sensitivity. Treatment options for patients with immune-low and DDR-proficient tumors remains an outstanding need. Caution is needed using PT-derived transcriptional signatures to direct treatment in mTNBC, particularly DDR-related markers following prior chemotherapy.