Genomic and Immunophenotypic Landscape of Acquired Resistance to PD-(L)1 Blockade in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Purpose: Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have extended survival in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), acquired resistance (AR) to ICI frequently develops after an initial benefit. However, the mechanisms of AR to ICI in NSCLC are largely unknown.

Methods: Comprehensive tumor genomic profiling, machine learning-based assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, multiplexed immunofluorescence, and/or HLA-I immunohistochemistry (IHC) were performed on matched pre- and post-ICI tumor biopsies from patients with NSCLC treated with ICI at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who developed AR to ICI. Two additional cohorts of patients with intervening chemotherapy or targeted therapies between biopsies were included as controls.

Results: We performed comprehensive genomic profiling and immunophenotypic characterization on samples from 82 patients with NSCLC and matched pre- and post-ICI biopsies and compared findings with a control cohort of patients with non-ICI intervening therapies between biopsies (chemotherapy, N = 32; targeted therapies, N = 89; both, N = 17). Putative resistance mutations were identified in 27.8% of immunotherapy-treated cases and included acquired loss-of-function mutations in , , , , , and /; these acquired alterations were not observed in the control groups. Immunophenotyping of matched pre- and post-ICI samples demonstrated significant decreases in intratumoral lymphocytes, CD3e and CD8a T cells, and PD-L1-PD1 engagement, as well as increased distance between tumor cells and CD8PD-1 T cells. There was a significant decrease in HLA class I expression in the immunotherapy cohort at the time of AR compared with the chemotherapy ( = .005) and the targeted therapy ( = .01) cohorts.

Conclusion: These findings highlight the genomic and immunophenotypic heterogeneity of ICI resistance in NSCLC, which will need to be considered when developing novel therapeutic strategies aimed at overcoming resistance.