Clinical Activity of an hTERT-Specific Cancer Vaccine (Vx-001) in “Immune Desert” NSCLC

• Main Authors: Ioannis S. Pateras, Athanasios Kotsakis, Margaritis Avgeris, Evangelia Baliou, Panagiotis Kouroupakis, Eleni Patsea, Vassilis Georgoulias, Jeanne Menez-Jamet, Jean-Pierre Kinet, Kostas Kosmatopoulos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Cancers
• Subjects: cancer vaccines; Vx-001; metastatic non-small cell lung cancer; immunologically cold tumors; tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes; granzyme B
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/13/7/1658

Background: Tumors can be separated into immunogenic/hot and non-immunogenic/cold on the basis of the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), the expression of PD-L1 and the tumor mutation burden (TMB). In immunogenic tumors, TILs become unable to control tumor growth because their activity is suppressed by different inhibitory pathways, including PD-1/PD-L1. We hypothesized that tumor vaccines may not be active in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of immunogenic/hot tumors while they could be efficient in the immune naïve microenvironment of non-immunogenic/cold tumors. Methods: The randomized phase II Vx-001-201 study investigated the effect of the Vx-001 vaccine as maintenance treatment in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Biopsies from 131 (68 placebo and 63 Vx-001) patients were retrospectively analyzed for PD-L1 expression and TIL infiltration. TILs were measured as tumor-associated immune cells (TAICs), CD3-TILs, CD8-TILs and granzyme B-producing TILs (GZMB-TILs). Patients were distinguished into PD-L1(+) and PD-L1(-) and into TIL high and TIL low. Findings: There was no correlation between PD-L1 expression and Vx-001 clinical activity. In contrast, Vx-001 showed a significant improvement of overall survival (OS) vs. placebo in TAIC low (21 vs. 8.1 months, <i>p</i> = 0.003, HR = 0.404, 95% CI 0.219–0.745), CD3-TIL low (21.6 vs. 6.6 months, <i>p</i> < 0.001, HR = 0.279, 95% CI 0.131–0.595), CD8-TIL low (21 vs. 6.6 months, <i>p</i> < 0.001; HR = 0.240, 95% CI 0.11–0.522) and GZMB-TIL low (20.7 vs. 11.1 months, <i>p</i> = 0.011, HR = 0.490, 95% CI 0.278–0.863). Vx-001 did not offer any clinical benefit in patients with TAIC high, CD3-TIL high, CD8-TIL high or GZMB-TIL high tumors. CD3-TIL, CD8-TIL and GZMB-TIL were independent predictive factors of Vx-001 efficacy. Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that Vx-001 may be efficient in patients with non-immunogenic/cold but not with immunogenic/hot tumors.