Abstract
To identify predictive factors of nivolumab sensitivity, peripheral blood NKs and regulatory T-cell (Treg) were evaluated in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) enrolled in the REVOLUTION trial.
Fifty-seven mRCCs being treated with nivolumab, as at least second-line of therapy, and 62 healthy donors were longitudinally evaluated (0–1–3–6–12 months) for peripheral NKs and Tregs, phenotype, and function. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to identify the independent predictors. The 0.632+ internal cross-validation was used to avoid overfitting. The best cutoff value based on a 3-month clinical response was applied to progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Kaplan–Meier curves for PFS and OS were produced.
At pretreatment, mRCCs displayed high frequency of NKp46+NKs, NKp30+NKs, KIR2DL1+NKs, KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs, and PD1+NKs with reduced NK degranulation as well as high frequency of Tregs, PD1+Tregs, Helios+Tregs, and ENTPD1+Tregs. Responder patients, identified as a clinical response after 3 months of treatment, presented at pretreatment significantly low CD3+, high KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs, high PD1+Tregs, and high Helios+Tregs. Upon multivariate analysis, only KIR2DL2/DL3NKs and Helios+Tregs held as independent predictors of nivolumab responsiveness. The KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs >35.3% identified patients with longer OS, whereas the Helios+Tregs >34.3% displayed significantly longer PFS. After 1-month of nivolumab, responder patients showed low CD3+, high NKs, KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs, and ICOS+Tregs. Among these subpopulations, CD3+ and KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs held as independent predictors of nivolumab efficacy. Low CD3+ (≤71%) was significantly associated with longer PFS, whereas high KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs (>23.3%) were associated with both PFS and OS.
Pretreatment evaluation of Helios+Tregs/KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs and 1-month posttreatment CD3+/ KIR2DL2/DL3+NKs will predict nivolumab response in mRCCs.