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NY-ESO-1 Cancer Testis Antigen Demonstrates High Immunogenicity in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

2012; Public Library of Science; Volume: 7; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pone.0038783

1932-6203

Foluso O. Ademuyiwa, Wiam Bshara, Kristopher Attwood, Carl Morrison, Stephen B. Edge, Christine B. Ambrosone, Tracey L. O’Connor, Ellis Levine, Anthony Miliotto, Erika Ritter, Gerd Ritter, Sacha Gnjatic, Kunle Odunsi,

T-cell and B-cell Immunology

Purpose NY-ESO-1 cancer testis (CT) antigen is an attractive candidate for immunotherapy as a result of its high immunogenicity. The aim of this study was to explore the potential for NY-ESO-1 antigen directed immunotherapy in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) by determining the frequency of expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and the degree of inherent immunogenicity to NY-ESO-1. Experimental Design 168 TNBC and 47 ER+/HER2- primary breast cancer specimens were used to determine NY-ESO-1 frequency by IHC. As previous studies have shown that patients with a robust innate humoral immune response to CT antigens are more likely to develop CD8 T-cell responses to NY-ESO-1 peptides, we evaluated the degree to which patients with NY-ESO-1 expression had inherent immunogenicity by measuring antibodies. The relationship between NY-ESO-1 expression and CD8+ T lymphocytes was also examined. Results The frequency of NY-ESO-1 expression in the TNBC cohort was 16% versus 2% in ER+/HER2- patients. A higher NY-ESO-1 score was associated with a younger age at diagnosis in the TNBC patients with NY-ESO-1 expression (p = 0.026). No differences in OS (p = 0.278) or PFS (p = 0.238) by NY-ESO-1 expression status were detected. Antibody responses to NY-ESO-1 were found in 73% of TNBC patients whose tumors were NY-ESO-1 positive. NY-ESO-1 positive patients had higher CD8 counts than negative patients (p = 0.018). Conclusion NY-ESO-1 is expressed in a substantial subset of TNBC patients and leads to a high humoral immune response in a large proportion of these individuals. Given these observations, patients with TNBC may benefit from targeted therapies directed against NY-ESO-1.