Abstract
Introduction: Maximal heterozygosity on the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci has been found to be associated with improved survival and development of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) among NSCLC patients treated with immunotherapy. Here, we investigated the effect of germline HLA-I/-II on clinical outcomes among NSCLC patients treated with first-line pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy. Method: We prospectively recruited patients with NSCLC who were commencing first-line pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy. DNA from white blood cells was used for high-resolution HLA-I/II typing. Results: Of the 65 patients recruited, 53 complied with the inclusion criteria. We did not find an association between HLA-I/-II homozygosity and clinical outcome among the studied population. However, the presence of HLA-A01 was associated with unfavourable PFS (HR = 2.32, 95%CI 1.13–4.77, p = 0.022) and worsening OS (HR = 2.86, 95%CI 1.06–7.70, p = 0.038). The presence of HLA-B27 was associated with improved PFS (HR = 0.35, 95%CI 0.18–0.71, p = 0.004) and trends toward improving OS. None of the HLA-I supertypes were associated with the development or worsening of irAEs. Conclusions: The absence of association between genomic HLA-I/-II homozygosity and clinical outcome among patients with advanced NSCLC treated with pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy might reflect a diminished role for HLA molecules among patients with low or no PD-L1. HLA-A01 and HLA-B27 might have a role in predicting clinical outcomes among this cohort of patients. Further studies are needed to explore biomarkers for this group of patients.
Keywords
biomarkers, chemotherapy, genomic HLA, immunotherapy, NSCLC
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
9-1-2024
Volume
16
Issue
17
Publication Title
Cancers
Publisher
MDPI
School
Centre for Precision Health / School of Medical and Health Sciences
RAS ID
72546
Funders
Fiona Stanley Hospital / Edith Cowan University / International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Foundation / Cancer Council of Western Australia
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Abed, A., Reid, A., Law, N., Millward, M., & Gray, E. S. (2024). HLA-A01 and HLA-B27 supertypes, but not HLA homozygocity, correlate with clinical outcome among patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated with pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy. Cancers, 16(17), 3102. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16173102