Genetic Variants and Tumor Immune Microenvironment: Clues for Targeted Therapies in Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC).

ABSTRACT: To better understand the etiology of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and identify potential therapies, we studied genomic alterations in IBC patients. Targeted, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was performed on cell-free DNA (cfDNA) (n = 33) and paired DNA from tumor tissues (n = 29) from 32 IBC patients. We confirmed complementarity between cfDNA and tumor tissue genetic profiles. We found a high incidence of germline variants in IBC patients that could be associated with an increased risk of developing the disease. Furthermore, 31% of IBC patients showed deficiencies in the homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway (BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, RAD51C, ATM, BARD1) making them sensitive to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. We also characterized the tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in tumor tissue biopsies by studying several markers (CD4, CD8, FoxP3, CD20, PD-1, and PD-L1) through immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining. In 7 of 24 (29%) patients, tumor biopsies were positive for PD-L1 and PD-1 expression on TILs, making them sensitive to PD-1/PD-L1 blocking therapies. Our results provide a rationale for considering PARP inhibitors and PD-1/PDL1 blocking immunotherapy in qualifying IBC patients.

SUBMITTER: Gong Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8396191 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature