Blood biomarkers associated to complete pathologicalresponse on NSCLC patients treated with neoadjuvantchemoimmunotherapy included in NADIM clinical trial

Abstract

Background:Immunotherapy is being tested in early-stage non-small cell lungcancer (NSCLC), and achieving higher rates of complete pathological responses(CPR) as compared to standard of care. Early identification of CPR patients hasvital clinical implications. In this study, we focused on basal peripheral immunecells and their treatment-related changes to find biomarkers associated toCPR.Methods:Blood from 29 stage IIIA NSCLC patients participating in the NADIMtrial (NCT03081689) was collected at diagnosis and post neoadjuvant treatment.More than 400 parameters of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) phe-notype and plasma soluble factors were analyzed.Results:Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy altered more than 150 immuneparameters. At diagnosis, 11 biomarkers associated to CPR were described, withan area under the ROC curve>0.70 andp-value<.05. CPR patients had sig-nificantly higher levels of CD4+PD-1+cells, NKG2D, and CD56 expression onT CD56 cells, intensity of CD25 expression on CD4+CD25hi+cells and CD69expression on intermediate monocytes; but lower levels of CD3+CD56–CTLA-4+cells, CD14++CD16+CTLA-4+cells, CTLA-4 expression on T CD56 cells andlower levels of b-NGF, NT-3, and VEGF-D in plasma compared to non-CPR. Posttreatment, CPR patients had significantly higher levels of CD19 expression on Bcells, BCMA, 4-1BB, MCSF, and PARC and lower levels of MPIF-1 and Flt-3L inplasma compared to non-CPR.Conclusions:Patients achieving CPR seem to have a distinctive peripheralblood immune status at diagnosis, even showing different immune response totreatment.TheseresultsreinforcethedifferentbiologybehindCPRandnon-CPRresponses.