2. Academic Validation
  3. A Cancer Cell Program Promotes T Cell Exclusion and Resistance to Checkpoint Blockade

A Cancer Cell Program Promotes T Cell Exclusion and Resistance to Checkpoint Blockade

  • Cell. 2018 Nov 1;175(4):984-997.e24. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.09.006.
Livnat Jerby-Arnon 1,  Parin Shah 2,  Michael S Cuoco 1,  Christopher Rodman 1,  Mei-Ju Su 3,  Johannes C Melms 2,  Rachel Leeson 3,  Abhay Kanodia 3,  Shaolin Mei 4,  Jia-Ren Lin 5,  Shu Wang 5,  Bokang Rabasha 2,  David Liu 2,  Gao Zhang 6,  Claire Margolais 2,  Orr Ashenberg 1,  Patrick A Ott 2,  Elizabeth I Buchbinder 2,  Rizwan Haq 2,  F Stephen Hodi 2,  Genevieve M Boland 7,  Ryan J Sullivan 7,  Dennie T Frederick 7,  Benchun Miao 7,  Tabea Moll 7,  Keith T Flaherty 7,  Meenhard Herlyn 6,  Russell W Jenkins 8,  Rohit Thummalapalli 2,  Monika S Kowalczyk 9,  Israel Cañadas 2,  Bastian Schilling 10,  Adam N R Cartwright 11,  Adrienne M Luoma 11,  Shruti Malu 2,  Patrick Hwu 12,  Chantale Bernatchez 12,  Marie-Andrée Forget 12,  David A Barbie 2,  Alex K Shalek 1,  Itay Tirosh 1,  Peter K Sorger 5,  Kai Wucherpfennig 11,  Eliezer M Van Allen 2,  Dirk Schadendorf 13,  Bruce E Johnson 3,  Asaf Rotem 14,  Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen 1,  Levi A Garraway 15,  Charles H Yoon 16,  Benjamin Izar 17,  Aviv Regev 18
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
  • 2 Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 3 Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Cancer Precision Medicine of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 4 Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Laboratory for Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 5 Laboratory for Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 6 Molecular & Cellular Oncogenesis Program and Melanoma Research Center, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 7 Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 8 Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 9 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Celsius Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
  • 10 Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Essen, West German Cancer Center, University Duisburg-Essen and the German Cancer Consortium, Essen, Germany; Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
  • 11 Center for Immunology and Virology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 12 Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
  • 13 Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Essen, West German Cancer Center, University Duisburg-Essen and the German Cancer Consortium, Essen, Germany.
  • 14 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Cancer Precision Medicine of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 15 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Cancer Precision Medicine of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Ludwig Center for Cancer Research at Harvard, Boston, MA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA.
  • 16 Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Surgical Oncology, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 17 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Cancer Precision Medicine of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Laboratory for Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Immunology and Virology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Ludwig Center for Cancer Research at Harvard, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 18 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA; Ludwig Center for Cancer Research at MIT, Boston, MA, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
PMID: 30388455 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.09.006
Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) produce durable responses in some melanoma patients, but many patients derive no clinical benefit, and the molecular underpinnings of such resistance remain elusive. Here, we leveraged single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) from 33 melanoma tumors and computational analyses to interrogate malignant cell states that promote immune evasion. We identified a resistance program expressed by malignant cells that is associated with T cell exclusion and immune evasion. The program is expressed prior to immunotherapy, characterizes cold niches in situ, and predicts clinical responses to anti-PD-1 therapy in an independent cohort of 112 melanoma patients. CDK4/6-inhibition represses this program in individual malignant cells, induces senescence, and reduces melanoma tumor outgrowth in mouse models in vivo when given in combination with immunotherapy. Our study provides a high-resolution landscape of ICI-resistant cell states, identifies clinically predictive signatures, and suggests new therapeutic strategies to overcome immunotherapy resistance.

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