Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Purpose
Anti-PD-1 therapy provides clinical benefit in 40-50% of patients with relapsed and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (RM-HNSCC). Selection of anti- PD-1 therapy is typically based on patient PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) which has low specificity for predicting disease control. Therefore, there is a critical need for a clinical biomarker that will predict clinical benefit to anti-PD-1 treatment with high specificity.Methods
Clinical treatment and outcomes data for 103 RM-HNSCC patients were paired with RNA-sequencing data from formalin-fixed patient samples. Using logistic regression methods, we developed a novel biomarker classifier based on expression patterns in the tumor immune microenvironment to predict disease control with monotherapy PD-1 inhibitors (pembrolizumab and nivolumab). The performance of the biomarker was internally validated using out-of-bag methods.Results
The biomarker significantly predicted disease control (65% in predicted non-progressors vs. 17% in predicted progressors, p < 0.001) and was significantly correlated with overall survival (OS; p = 0.004). In addition, the biomarker outperformed PD-L1 IHC across numerous metrics including sensitivity (0.79 vs 0.64, respectively; p = 0.005) and specificity (0.70 vs 0.61, respectively; p = 0.009).Conclusion
This novel assay uses tumor immune microenvironment expression data to predict disease control and OS with high sensitivity and specificity in patients with RM-HNSCC treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy.
SUBMITTER: Flanagan KC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10590294 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Flanagan Kevin C KC Earls Jon J Schillebeeckx Ian I Hiken Jeffrey J Wellinghoff Rachel L RL LaFranzo Natalie A NA Bradley Zachary S ZS Babbitt Joey J Westra William H WH Hsu Raymond R Nadauld Lincoln L Mcleod Howard H Firth Sean D SD Sharp Brittany B Fuller Josh J Vavinskaya Vera V Sutton Leisa L Deichaite Ida I Bailey Samuel D SD Sandulache Vlad C VC Rendo Matthew J MJ Macdonald Orlan K OK Welaya Karim K Wade James L JL Pippas Andrew W AW Slim Jennifer J Bank Bruce B Saccaro Steven J SJ Sui Xingwei X Akhtar Adil A Balaraman Savitha S Kossman Steven E SE Sonnier Scott A SA Shenkenberg Todd D TD Alexander Warren L WL Price Katherine A KA Bane Charles L CL Ley Jessica J Messina David N DN Glasscock Jarret I JI Cohen Ezra E W EEW Adkins Douglas R DR Duncavage Eric J EJ
Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology 20230808 15
<h4>Purpose</h4>Anti-PD-1 therapy provides clinical benefit in 40-50% of patients with relapsed and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (RM-HNSCC). Selection of anti- PD-1 therapy is typically based on patient PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) which has low specificity for predicting disease control. Therefore, there is a critical need for a clinical biomarker that will predict clinical benefit to anti-PD-1 treatment with high specificity.<h4>Methods</h4>Clinical treatment and out ...[more]