Institute of Precision Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Clinical Trials Unit, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Cancer Immunol Res. 2022 Jun 3;10(6):728-744. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-21-0931.
A high rate of recurrence after curative therapy is a major challenge for the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Currently, no effective adjuvant therapy is available to prevent HCC recurrence. We designed a personalized neoantigen-loaded dendritic cell vaccine and neoantigen-activated T-cell therapy, and used it as adjuvant therapy to treat 10 patients with HCC who had undergone curative resection or radiofrequency ablation in the first stage of a phase II trial (NCT03067493). The primary outcomes were safety and neoantigen-specific immune response. Disease-free survival (DFS) was also evaluated. The immunotherapy was successfully administered to all the patients without unexpected delay and demonstrated a reasonable safety profile with no grade ≥3 treatment-related side effects reported. Seventy percent of patients generated de novo circulating multiclonal neoantigen-specific T-cell responses. Induced neoantigen-specific immunity was maintained over time, and epitope spreading was observed. Patients who generated immune responses to treatment exhibited prolonged DFS compared with nonresponders (P = 0.012), with 71.4% experiencing no relapse for 2 years after curative treatment. High expression of an immune stimulatory signature, enhanced immune-cell infiltration (i.e., CD8+ T cells), and upregulated expression of T-cell inflammatory gene profiles were found in the primary tumors of the responders. In addition, neoantigen depletion (immunoediting) was present in the recurrent tumors compared with the primary tumors (7/9 vs. 1/17, P = 0.014), suggesting that immune evasion occurred under the pressure of immunotherapy. Our study indicates that neoantigen-based combination immunotherapy is feasible, safe, and has the potential to reduce HCC recurrence after curative treatment.
根治性治疗后复发率高是肝细胞癌(HCC)管理的主要挑战。目前,尚无有效的辅助治疗方法可预防 HCC 复发。我们设计了一种个性化的新抗原负载树突状细胞疫苗和新抗原激活的 T 细胞治疗方法,并将其作为辅助治疗用于 10 例接受根治性切除或射频消融的 HCC 患者的一期二期试验(NCT03067493)。主要结局是安全性和新抗原特异性免疫反应。还评估了无病生存(DFS)。所有患者均成功接受免疫治疗,无意外延迟,且无报告≥3 级与治疗相关的不良反应,安全性良好。70%的患者产生了新的循环多克隆新抗原特异性 T 细胞反应。诱导的新抗原特异性免疫随时间保持,并且观察到表位扩展。与无反应者相比,产生免疫反应的患者的 DFS 延长(P = 0.012),71.4%的患者在根治性治疗后 2 年内无复发。应答者的原发肿瘤中发现免疫刺激特征高表达、免疫细胞浸润增强(即 CD8+T 细胞)和 T 细胞炎症基因谱上调。此外,与原发性肿瘤相比,复发性肿瘤中存在新抗原耗竭(免疫编辑)(7/9 比 1/17,P = 0.014),表明免疫逃避发生在免疫治疗的压力下。我们的研究表明,基于新抗原的联合免疫疗法是可行的、安全的,并有可能降低根治性治疗后 HCC 的复发率。
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