Circulating T-Cell Repertoires Correlate With the Tumor Response in Patients With Breast Cancer Receiving Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Abstract

PURPOSE Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has been widely used in patients with breast cancer to minish tumor burden and increase resection rate of cancer. T-cell repertoire has been believed to be able to monitor antitumor immune responses. This study aimed to explore the dynamic change of T-cell repertoire and its clinical value in evaluating the tumor response in patients with breast cancer receiving NAC. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ninety-four patients who underwent NAC before surgery were recruited, and peripheral blood samples were collected at multiple time points during NAC. High-throughput T-cell receptor (TCR)-β sequencing was used to characterize the T-cell repertoire of every sample and analyzed the changes in circulating T-cell repertoire during NAC. RESULTS We found that the diversity of TCR repertoires was associated with age and clinical stage of the patients with breast cancer. The distribution of Vβ and Jβ genes in TCR repertoires was skewed in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–positive (HER2+) breast cancer. Vβ20.1 and Vβ30 expression levels before NAC correlate with tumor response after all cycles of NAC in HER2– and HER2+ patients, respectively. Some CDR3 motifs that correlated with clinical response in either HER2+ or HER2– patients were identified. Besides, TCR repertoire evolved during NAC and the diversity of TCR repertoire decreased more after two cycles of NAC in patients with good tumor response after all cycles of NAC ( P = .0061). CONCLUSION Our results demonstrated that TCR repertoire correlated with the characteristics of the tumor, such as the expression status of HER2. Moreover, some characteristics of TCR repertoires that correlated with clinical response were identified and they might provide useful information to tailor therapeutic regimens at the early cycle of NAC.