Browsing by Author "Dees, Elizabeth C."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Adjuvant Chemotherapy Guided by a 21-Gene Expression Assay in Breast Cancer
    (Massachusetts Medical Society, 2018-07) Sparano, Joseph A.; Gray, Robert J.; Makower, Della F.; Pritchard, Kathleen I.; Albain, Kathy S.; Hayes, Daniel F.; Geyer, Charles E., Jr.; Dees, Elizabeth C.; Goetz, Matthew P.; Olson, John A., Jr.; Lively, Tracy; Badve, Sunil S.; Saphner, Thomas J.; Wagner, Lynne I.; Whelan, Timothy J.; Ellis, Matthew J.; Paik, Soonmyung; Wood, William C.; Ravdin, Peter M.; Keane, Maccon M.; Gomez Moreno, Henry L.; Reddy, Pavan S.; Goggins, Timothy F.; Mayer, Ingrid A.; Brufsky, Adam M.; Toppmeyer, Deborah L.; Kaklamani, Virginia G.; Berenberg, Jeffery L.; Abrams, Jeffrey; Sledge, George W., Jr.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND The recurrence score based on the 21-gene breast cancer assay predicts chemotherapy benefit if it is high and a low risk of recurrence in the absence of chemotherapy if it is low; however, there is uncertainty about the benefit of chemotherapy for most patients, who have a midrange score. METHODS We performed a prospective trial involving 10,273 women with hormone-receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–negative, axillary node–negative breast cancer. Of the 9719 eligible patients with follow-up information, 6711 (69%) had a midrange recurrence score of 11 to 25 and were randomly assigned to receive either chemoendocrine therapy or endocrine therapy alone. The trial was designed to show noninferiority of endocrine therapy alone for invasive disease–free survival (defined as freedom from invasive disease recurrence, second primary cancer, or death). RESULTS Endocrine therapy was noninferior to chemoendocrine therapy in the analysis of invasive disease–free survival (hazard ratio for invasive disease recurrence, second primary cancer, or death [endocrine vs. chemoendocrine therapy], 1.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.94 to 1.24; P=0.26). At 9 years, the two treatment groups had similar rates of invasive disease–free survival (83.3% in the endocrine-therapy group and 84.3% in the chemoendocrine-therapy group), freedom from disease recurrence at a distant site (94.5% and 95.0%) or at a distant or local–regional site (92.2% and 92.9%), and overall survival (93.9% and 93.8%). The chemotherapy benefit for invasive disease–free survival varied with the combination of recurrence score and age (P=0.004), with some benefit of chemotherapy found in women 50 years of age or younger with a recurrence score of 16 to 25. CONCLUSIONS Adjuvant endocrine therapy and chemoendocrine therapy had similar efficacy in women with hormone-receptor–positive, HER2-negative, axillary node–negative breast cancer who had a midrange 21-gene recurrence score, although some benefit of chemotherapy was found in some women 50 years of age or younger.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Clinical and Genomic Risk to Guide the Use of Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer
    (Massachusetts Medical Society, 2019-06-20) Sparano, Joseph A.; Gray, Robert J.; Ravdin, Peter M.; Makower, Della F.; Pritchard, Kathleen I.; Albain, Kathy S.; Hayes, Daniel F.; Geyer, Charles E.; Dees, Elizabeth C.; Goetz, Matthew P.; Olson, John A.; Lively, Tracy; Badve, Sunil S.; Saphner, Thomas J.; Wagner, Lynne I.; Whelan, Timothy J.; Ellis, Matthew J.; Paik, Soonmyung; Wood, William C.; Keane, Maccon M.; Gomez Moreno, Henry L.; Reddy, Pavan S.; Goggins, Timothy F.; Mayer, Ingrid A.; Brufsky, Adam M.; Toppmeyer, Deborah L.; Kaklamani, Virginia G.; Berenberg, Jeffrey L.; Abrams, Jeffrey; Sledge, George W.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND The use of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer may be guided by clinicopathological factors and a score based on a 21-gene assay to determine the risk of recurrence. Whether the level of clinical risk of breast cancer recurrence adds prognostic information to the recurrence score is not known. METHODS We performed a prospective trial involving 9427 women with hormone-receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–negative, axillary node–negative breast cancer, in whom an assay of 21 genes had been performed, and we classified the clinical risk of recurrence of breast cancer as low or high on the basis of the tumor size and histologic grade. The effect of clinical risk was evaluated by calculating hazard ratios for distant recurrence with the use of Cox proportional-hazards models. The initial endocrine therapy was tamoxifen alone in the majority of the premenopausal women who were 50 years of age or younger. RESULTS The level of clinical risk was prognostic of distant recurrence in women with an intermediate 21-gene recurrence score of 11 to 25 (on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a worse prognosis or a greater potential benefit from chemotherapy) who were randomly assigned to endocrine therapy (hazard ratio for the comparison of high vs. low clinical risk, 2.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.93 to 3.87) or to chemotherapy plus endocrine (chemoendocrine) therapy (hazard ratio, 2.41; 95% CI, 1.66 to 3.48) and in women with a high recurrence score (a score of 26 to 100), all of whom were assigned to chemoendocrine therapy (hazard ratio, 3.17; 95% CI, 1.94 to 5.19). Among women who were 50 years of age or younger who had received endocrine therapy alone, the estimated (±SE) rate of distant recurrence at 9 years was less than 5% (≤1.8±0.9%) with a low recurrence score (a score of 0 to 10), irrespective of clinical risk, and 4.7±1.0% with an intermediate recurrence score and low clinical risk. In this age group, the estimated distant recurrence at 9 years exceeded 10% among women with a high clinical risk and an intermediate recurrence score who received endocrine therapy alone (12.3±2.4%) and among those with a high recurrence score who received chemoendocrine therapy (15.2±3.3%). CONCLUSIONS Clinical-risk stratification provided prognostic information that, when added to the 21-gene recurrence score, could be used to identify premenopausal women who could benefit from more effective therapy.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Epithelial Expressed B7-H4 Drives Differential Immunotherapy Response in Murine and Human Breast Cancer
    (American Association for Cancer Research, 2024) Wescott, Elizabeth C.; Sun, Xiaopeng; Gonzalez-Ericsson, Paula; Hanna, Ann; Taylor, Brandie C.; Sanchez, Violeta; Bronzini, Juliana; Opalenik, Susan R.; Sanders, Melinda E.; Wulfkuhle, Julia; Gallagher, Rosa I.; Gomez, Henry; Isaacs, Claudine; Bharti, Vijaya; Wilson, John T.; Ballinger, Tarah J.; Santa-Maria, Cesar A.; Shah, Payal D.; Dees, Elizabeth C.; Lehmann, Brian D.; Abramson, Vandana G.; Hirst, Gillian L.; Brown Swigart, Lamorna; van ˈt Veer, Laura J.; Esserman, Laura J.; Petricoin, Emanuel F.; Pietenpol, Jennifer A.; Balko, Justin M.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Combinations of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI, including anti-PD-1/PD-L1) and chemotherapy have been FDA approved for metastatic and early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), but most patients do not benefit. B7-H4 is a B7 family ligand with proposed immunosuppressive functions being explored as a cancer immunotherapy target and may be associated with anti-PD-L1 resistance. However, little is known about its regulation and effect on immune cell function in breast cancers. We assessed murine and human breast cancer cells to identify regulation mechanisms of B7-H4 in vitro. We used an immunocompetent anti-PD-L1-sensitive orthotopic mammary cancer model and induced ectopic expression of B7-H4. We assessed therapy response and transcriptional changes at baseline and under treatment with anti-PD-L1. We observed B7-H4 was highly associated with epithelial cell status and transcription factors and found to be regulated by PI3K activity. EMT6 tumors with cell-surface B7-H4 expression were more resistant to immunotherapy. In addition, tumor-infiltrating immune cells had reduced immune activation signaling based on transcriptomic analysis. Paradoxically, in human breast cancer, B7-H4 expression was associated with survival benefit for patients with metastatic TNBC treated with carboplatin plus anti-PD-L1 and was associated with no change in response or survival for patients with early breast cancer receiving chemotherapy plus anti-PD-1. While B7-H4 induces tumor resistance to anti-PD-L1 in murine models, there are alternative mechanisms of signaling and function in human cancers. In addition, the strong correlation of B7-H4 to epithelial cell markers suggests a potential regulatory mechanism of B7-H4 independent of PD-L1. Significance: This translational study confirms the association of B7-H4 expression with a cold immune microenvironment in breast cancer and offers preclinical studies demonstrating a potential role for B7-H4 in suppressing response to checkpoint therapy. However, analysis of two clinical trials with checkpoint inhibitors in the early and metastatic settings argue against B7-H4 as being a mechanism of clinical resistance to checkpoints, with clear implications for its candidacy as a therapeutic target.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    NKG2A Is a Therapeutic Vulnerability in Immunotherapy Resistant MHC-I Heterogeneous Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
    (American Association for Cancer Research, 2024) Taylor, Brandie C.; Sun, Xiaopeng; Gonzalez-Ericsson, Paula I.; Sanchez, Violeta; Sanders, Melinda E.; Wescott, Elizabeth C.; Opalenik, Susan R.; Hanna, Ann; Chou, Shu-Ting; Van Kaer, Luc; Gomez, Henry; Isaacs, Claudine; Ballinger, Tarah J.; Santa-Maria, Cesar A.; Shah, Payal D.; Dees, Elizabeth C.; Lehmann, Brian D.; Abramson, Vandana G.; Pietenpol, Jennifer A.; Balko, Justin M.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Despite the success of immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) in treating cancer, patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) often develop resistance to therapy, and the underlying mechanisms are unclear. MHC-I expression is essential for antigen presentation and T-cell-directed immunotherapy responses. This study demonstrates that TNBC patients display intratumor heterogeneity in regional MHC-I expression. In murine models, loss of MHC-I negates antitumor immunity and ICI response, whereas intratumor MHC-I heterogeneity leads to increased infiltration of natural killer (NK) cells in an IFNγ-dependent manner. Using spatial technologies, MHC-I heterogeneity is associated with clinical resistance to anti-programmed death (PD) L1 therapy and increased NK:T-cell ratios in human breast tumors. MHC-I heterogeneous tumors require NKG2A to suppress NK-cell function. Combining anti-NKG2A and anti-PD-L1 therapies restores complete response in heterogeneous MHC-I murine models, dependent on the presence of activated, tumor-infiltrating NK and CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that similar strategies may enhance patient benefit in clinical trials. Significance: Clinical resistance to immunotherapy is common in breast cancer, and many patients will likely require combination therapy to maximize immunotherapeutic benefit. This study demonstrates that heterogeneous MHC-I expression drives resistance to anti-PD-L1 therapy and exposes NKG2A on NK cells as a target to overcome resistance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Prospective Validation of a 21-Gene Expression Assay in Breast Cancer
    (Massachusetts Medical Society, 2015-11) Sparano, Joseph A.; Gray, Robert J.; Makower, Della F.; Pritchard, Kathleen I.; Albain, Kathy S.; Hayes, Daniel F.; Geyer, Charles E., Jr.; Dees, Elizabeth C.; Perez, Edith A.; Olson, John A., Jr.; Zujewski, JoAnne; Lively, Tracy; Badve, Sunil S.; Saphner, Thomas J.; Wagner, Lynne I.; Whelan, Timothy J.; Ellis, Matthew J.; Paik, Soonmyung; Wood, William C.; Ravdin, Peter; Keane, Maccon M.; Gomez Moreno, Henry L.; Reddy, Pavan S.; Goggins, Timothy F.; Mayer, Ingrid A.; Brufsky, Adam M.; Toppmeyer, Deborah L.; Kaklamani, Virginia G.; Atkins, James N.; Berenberg, Jeffrey L.; Sledge, George W.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND Prior studies with the use of a prospective–retrospective design including archival tumor samples have shown that gene-expression assays provide clinically useful prognostic information. However, a prospectively conducted study in a uniformly treated population provides the highest level of evidence supporting the clinical validity and usefulness of a biomarker. METHODS We performed a prospective trial involving women with hormone-receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2)–negative, axillary node–negative breast cancer with tumors of 1.1 to 5.0 cm in the greatest dimension (or 0.6 to 1.0 cm in the greatest dimension and intermediate or high tumor grade) who met established guidelines for the consideration of adjuvant chemotherapy on the basis of clinicopathologic features. A reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction assay of 21 genes was performed on the paraffin-embedded tumor tissue, and the results were used to calculate a score indicating the risk of breast-cancer recurrence; patients were assigned to receive endocrine therapy without chemotherapy if they had a recurrence score of 0 to 10, indicating a very low risk of recurrence (on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater risk of recurrence). RESULTS Of the 10,253 eligible women enrolled, 1626 women (15.9%) who had a recurrence score of 0 to 10 were assigned to receive endocrine therapy alone without chemotherapy. At 5 years, in this patient population, the rate of invasive disease–free survival was 93.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 92.4 to 94.9), the rate of freedom from recurrence of breast cancer at a distant site was 99.3% (95% CI, 98.7 to 99.6), the rate of freedom from recurrence of breast cancer at a distant or local–regional site was 98.7% (95% CI, 97.9 to 99.2), and the rate of overall survival was 98.0% (95% CI, 97.1 to 98.6). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with hormone-receptor–positive, HER2-negative, axillary node–negative breast cancer who met established guidelines for the recommendation of adjuvant chemotherapy on the basis of clinicopathologic features, those with tumors that had a favorable gene-expression profile had very low rates of recurrence at 5 years with endocrine therapy alone.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Race, Ethnicity, and Clinical Outcomes in Hormone Receptor-Positive, HER2-Negative, Node-Negative Breast Cancer in the Randomized TAILORx Trial
    (Oxford University Press, 2021-04-06) Albain, Kathy S.; Gray, Robert J.; Makower, Della F.; Faghih, Amir; Hayes, Daniel F.; Geyer, Charles E., Jr.; Dees, Elizabeth C.; Goetz, Matthew P.; Olson, John A., Jr.; Lively, Tracy; Badve, Sunil S.; Saphner, Thomas J.; Wagner, Lynne I.; Whelan, Timothy J.; Ellis, Matthew J.; Wood, William C.; Keane, Maccon M.; Gomez, Henry L.; Reddy, Pavan S.; Goggins, Timothy F.; Mayer, Ingrid A.; Brufsky, Adam M.; Toppmeyer, Deborah L.; Kaklamani, Virginia G.; Berenberg, Jeffrey L.; Abrams, Jeffrey; Sledge, George W., Jr.; Sparano, Joseph A.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Black race is associated with worse outcomes in early breast cancer. We evaluated clinicopathologic characteristics, the 21-gene recurrence score (RS), treatment delivered, and clinical outcomes by race and ethnicity among women who participated in the Trial Assigning Individualized Options for Treatment. Methods: The association between clinical outcomes and race (White, Black, Asian, other or unknown) and ethnicity (Hispanic vs non-Hispanic) was examined using proportional hazards models. All P values are 2-sided. Results: Of 9719 eligible women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-negative breast cancer, there were 8189 (84.3%) Whites, 693 (7.1%) Blacks, 405 (4.2%) Asians, and 432 (4.4%) with other or unknown race. Regarding ethnicity, 889 (9.1%) were Hispanic. There were no substantial differences in RS or ESR1, PGR, or HER2 RNA expression by race or ethnicity. After adjustment for other covariates, compared with White race, Black race was associated with higher distant recurrence rates (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.60, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.07 to 2.41) and worse overall survival in the RS 11-25 cohort (HR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.06 to 2.15) and entire population (HR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.05 to 1.90). Hispanic ethnicity and Asian race were associated with better outcomes. There was no evidence of chemotherapy benefit for any racial or ethnic group in those with a RS of 11-25. Conclusions: Black women had worse clinical outcomes despite similar 21-gene assay RS results and comparable systemic therapy in the Trial Assigning Individualized Options for Treatment. Similar to Whites, Black women did not benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy if the 21-gene RS was 11-25. Further research is required to elucidate the basis for this racial disparity in prognosis.