Baseline and early functional immune response is associated with subsequent clinical outcomes of PD-1 inhibition therapy in metastatic melanoma patients

BackgroundDespite significant progress with antiprogrammed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy, a substantial fraction of metastatic melanoma patients show upfront therapy resistance. Biomarkers for outcome are missing and the association of baseline immune function and clinical outcome remains to be determined. We assessed the in vitro nonspecific stimulation of immune response at baseline and during anti-PD-1 therapy for metastatic melanoma.MethodsPreviously untreated metastatic melanoma patients received nivolumab and radiotherapy as part of the multicentric phase II trial NIRVANA (NCT02799901). The levels of Th1, Th2 and Th17 cytokines on in vitro non-specific stimulation of innate and adaptive immune cells were measured in patient sera before treatment, and at week 2 and week 6 after the beginning of the treatment, and correlated with tumorous response, progression-free survival (PFS) and occurrence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs). The results in melanoma patients were compared with those of a cohort of 9 sex and age-matched healthy donors.ResultsSeventeen patients were enrolled in this ancillary study. Median follow-up was 16 months (2.2–28.4). The 12-month PFS rate was 67.7%. The incidence of irAEs of any grade was 58.8%. Without in vitro stimulation no differences in cytokines levels were observed between responders and non-responders. On in vitro stimulation, metastatic patients had lower Th1 cytokine levels than healthy donors at baseline for tumor necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) (1136 pg/mL vs 5558 pg/mL, pConclusionsOur findings indicate that cytokine levels after in vitro non-specific stimulation could be a promising biomarker to predict the outcome of PD-1 inhibition therapy.