- Gyurdieva, Alexandra;
- Zajic, Stefan;
- Chang, Ya-Fang;
- Houseman, E Andres;
- Zhong, Shan;
- Kim, Jaegil;
- Nathenson, Michael;
- Faitg, Thomas;
- Woessner, Mary;
- Turner, David C;
- Hasan, Aisha N;
- Glod, John;
- Kaplan, Rosandra N;
- D’Angelo, Sandra P;
- Araujo, Dejka M;
- Chow, Warren A;
- Druta, Mihaela;
- Demetri, George D;
- Van Tine, Brian A;
- Grupp, Stephan A;
- Fine, Gregg D;
- Eleftheriadou, Ioanna
Autologous T cells transduced to express a high affinity T-cell receptor specific to NY-ESO-1 (letetresgene autoleucel, lete-cel) show promise in the treatment of metastatic synovial sarcoma, with 50% overall response rate. The efficacy of lete-cel treatment in 45 synovial sarcoma patients (NCT01343043) has been previously reported, however, biomarkers predictive of response and resistance remain to be better defined. This post-hoc analysis identifies associations of response to lete-cel with lymphodepleting chemotherapy regimen (LDR), product attributes, cell expansion, cytokines, and tumor gene expression. Responders have higher IL-15 levels pre-infusion (p = 0.011) and receive a higher number of transduced effector memory (CD45RA- CCR7-) CD8 + cells per kg (p = 0.039). Post-infusion, responders have increased IFNγ, IL-6, and peak cell expansion (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, and p = 0.016, respectively). Analysis of tumor samples post-treatment illustrates lete-cel infiltration and a decrease in expression of macrophage genes, suggesting remodeling of the tumor microenvironment. Here we report potential predictive and pharmacodynamic markers of lete-cel response that may inform LDR, cell dose, and strategies to enhance anticancer efficacy.