195P - IMMUcan - Toward a better understanding of the tumor microenvironment to inform precision oncology approaches.

Background

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have rapidly changed the treatment landscape in oncology. However, the majority of cancer patients do not benefit from immunotherapies (primary resistance) or present with only short-term benefit (secondary resistance).

Methods

IMMUcan is a public-private European consortium funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative, set-up in 2019, to elucidate the relationship between host and cancer cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the impact of current standard of care treatments in up to 3,000 cancer patients. By integrating molecular (whole exome sequencing and total RNA sequencing) and cellular data (multiplex immunofluorescence (IF) and imaging mass cytometry (IMC)) of patient tumors with longitudinal clinical information, the tumor-host interaction and the response to therapies can be dissected. This represents a unique multi-modal dataset facilitating the discovery of novel biomarkers and resistance mechanisms. Thus, IMMUcan arguably represents one of Europe's largest TME-profiling efforts to date.

Results

More than 100 investigators from 17 European countries are prospectively recruiting patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), renal cell carcinoma and colorectal cancer, using the EORTC SPECTA platform (NCT02834884). To date, more than half of the targeted patients have been recruited, including almost 400 HNSCC and NSCLC as well as more than 600 breast cancer patients.

Conclusions

The first analysis on these cohorts will be presented during the ESMO-IO conference highlighting the novel biomarkers identified in TNBC (early and metastatic settings), the resistance mechanisms of HNSCC patients treated with immunotherapies, as well as the integration of molecular and cellular modalities to gain an understanding of advanced NSCLC disease.

Clinical trial identification

SPECTA - NCT02834884.

Legal entity responsible for the study

European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.

Funding

Funding: IMI2 JU grant agreement 821558, supported by EU’s Horizon 2020 and EFPIA.

Disclosure

M. Morfouace: Financial Interests, Personal, Member, Employee: Merck Healthcare. L. Buisseret: Financial Interests, Institutional, Advisory Board: Domain Therapeutics; Financial Interests, Institutional, Other, Steering Committee: iTEOS Therapeutics; Financial Interests, Personal, Other, writing of clinical cases: Mirrors of Medicine; Financial Interests, Institutional, Other, Travel grant: Gilead; Financial Interests, Institutional, Research Grant, Research Grant for an investigator initiated trial: Astra Zenaca; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Principal Investigator: iTeos Therapeutics; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Member: EORTC, BSMO. B. Besse: Financial Interests, Institutional, Funding: 4D Pharma, AbbVie, Amgen, Aptitude Health, AstraZeneca, BeiGene, Blueprint Medicines, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Cergentis, Cristal Therapeutics, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, GSK, Pfizer, Janssen, Onxeo, OSE Immunotherapeutics, Roche-Genentech, Sanofi, Takeda, Tolero Pharmaceuticals; Financial Interests, Institutional, Research Grant: Genzyme Corporation, Chugai pharmaceutical, Eisai, Inivata, Ipsen, Turning Point Therapeutics. J. Machiels: Financial Interests, Institutional, Advisory Board: Novartis, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, Debio, AstraZeneca, Innate, Nanobiotix, Bayer, Merck Serono, Boehringer Ingelheim, BMS, Pfizer, Cue Pharma, Incyte, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, ALX Oncology, F-star, Nektar, F-star, Seagen, Astellas, Genmab; Financial Interests, Institutional, Other, Travel expense: Gilead, MSD, Sanofi; Financial Interests, Institutional, Steering Committee Member: AstraZeneca, MSD; Financial Interests, Institutional, Coordinating PI: MSD, iTeos, eTheRNA; Financial Interests, Institutional, Local PI: Pfizer, Ceylad, MSD, Novartis, KURA, Roche, Lilly, Boehringer, Sanofi-Aventis, Incyte, Bayer, Merck Serono, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, AbbVie, GSK; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Leadership Role, Chair: EORTC head and neck group. C. Sotiriou: Financial Interests, Institutional, Advisory Board: Astellas, Vertex, Seattle Genetics, Amgen, INC, Merck & Co; Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Cepheid, Puma; Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: Eisai, Prime oncology, Teva; Financial Interests, Institutional, Other, Travel: Roche; Financial Interests, Institutional, Other, Internal speaker: Genentech; Financial Interests, Personal, Other, Regional speaker: Pfizer; Financial Interests, Institutional, Invited Speaker: Exact Sciences. D. Schaer: Financial Interests, Personal, Member, Employee: Bayer; Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: Eli Lilly. H.S. Hong: Financial Interests, Personal, Member, Employee: Merck Healthcare. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.