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American Association for Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, 5(25), p. 1535-1545, 2019

DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-18-2365

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NK Cell Infiltrates and HLA Class I Expression in Primary HER2+ Breast Cancer Predict and Uncouple Pathological Response and Disease-free Survival

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Abstract Purpose: We investigated the value of tumor-infiltrating NK (TI-NK) cells and HLA class I tumor expression as biomarkers of response to neoadjuvant anti-HER2 antibody–based treatment in breast cancer. Experimental Design: TI-NK cells and HLA-I were determined by IHC in pretreatment tumor biopsies from two cohorts of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer [discovery cohort (n = 42) and validation cohort (n = 71)]. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) were scored according to international guidelines. Biomarker association with pathologic complete response (pCR) and disease-free survival (DFS) was adjusted for prognostic factors. Gene set variation analysis was used for determining immune cell populations concomitant to NK-cell enrichment in HER2-positive tumors from the Cancer Genome Atlas (n = 190). Results: TI-NK cells were significantly associated with pCR in the discovery cohort as well as in the validation cohort (P < 0.0001), independently of clinicopathologic factors. A ≥3 TI-NK cells/50x high-power field (HPF) cutoff predicted pCR in the discovery and validation cohort [OR, 188 (11–3154); OR, 19.5 (5.3–71.8)]. Presence of TI-NK cells associated with prolonged DFS in both patient cohorts [HR, 0.07 (0.01–0.6); P = 0.01; HR, 0.3 (0.08–1.3); P = 0.1]. NK-, activated dendritic- and CD8 T-cell gene expression signatures positively correlated in HER2-positive tumors, supporting the value of NK cells as surrogates of effective antitumor immunity. Stratification of patients by tumor HLA-I expression identified patients with low and high relapse risk independently of pCR. Conclusions: This study identifies baseline TI-NK cells as an independent biomarker with great predictive value for pCR to anti-HER2 antibody–based treatment and points to the complementary value of tumor HLA-I status for defining patient prognosis independently of pCR.