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PURPOSE Neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus nivolumab has been shown to be effective in resectable non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the NADIM trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03081689 ). The 3-year overall survival (OS) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis have not been reported. METHODS This was an open-label, multicenter, single-arm, phase II trial in which patients with stage IIIA NSCLC, who were deemed to be surgically resectable, were treated with neoadjuvant paclitaxel (200 mg/m2 once a day) and carboplatin (area under curve 6) plus nivolumab (360 mg) once on day 1 of each 21-day cycle, for three cycles, followed by adjuvant nivolumab monotherapy for 1 year (240 mg once every 2 weeks for 4 months, followed by 480 mg once every 4 weeks for 8 months). The 3-year OS and ctDNA analysis were secondary objectives of the trial. RESULTS OS at 36 months was 81.9% (95% CI, 66.8 to 90.6) in the intention-to-treat population, rising to 91.0% (95% CI, 74.2 to 97.0) in the per-protocol population. Neither tumor mutation burden nor programmed cell death ligand-1 staining was predictive of survival. Conversely, low pretreatment levels of ctDNA were significantly associated with improved progression-free survival and OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.20; 95% CI, 0.06 to 0.63, and HR: 0.07; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.39, respectively). Clinical responses according to RECIST v1.1 criteria did not predict survival outcomes. However, undetectable ctDNA levels after neoadjuvant treatment were significantly associated with progression-free survival and OS (HR: 0.26; 95% CI, 0.07 to 0.93, and HR: 0.04; 95% CI, 0.00 to 0.55, respectively). The C-index to predict OS for ctDNA levels after neoadjuvant treatment (0.82) was superior to that of RECIST criteria (0.72). CONCLUSION The efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus nivolumab in resectable NSCLC is supported by 3-year OS. ctDNA levels were significantly associated with OS and outperformed radiologic assessments in the prediction of survival.

Characterization of the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire may be a promising source for predictive biomarkers of pathological response to immunotherapy in locally-advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Experimental Design: In this study, next-generation TCR sequencing was performed in peripheral blood and tissue samples of 40 NSCLC patients, before and after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy (NADIM clinical trial, NCT03081689), considering their complete pathologic response (CPR) or non-CPR. Beyond TCR metrics, tissue clones were ranked by their frequency and spatiotemporal evolution of top 1% clones was determined. Results:We have found a positive association between an uneven TCR repertoire in tissue samples at diagnosis and CPR at surgery. Moreover, TCR most frequent-ranked clones (top 1%) present in diagnostic biopsies occupied greater frequency in the total clonal space of CPR patients, achieving an AUC ROC to identify CPR patients of 0.967 (95% CI, 0.897 to 1.000; p=0.001), and improving the results of PD-L1 TPS (AUC 0.767; p=0.026) or TMB (AUC 0.550; p=0.687). Furthermore, tumors with high pre-treatment top 1% clonal space showed similar immune cell populations but a higher immune reactive gene expression profile. Finally, the selective expansion of pre-treatment tissue top 1% clones in peripheral blood of CPR patients suggests also a peripheral immunosurveillance, which could explain the high survival rate of these patients. Conclusions:We have identified two parameters derived from TCR repertoire analysis that could outperform PD-L1 TPS and TMB as predictive biomarkers of CPR after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy, and unraveled possible mechanisms of CPR involving enhanced tumor immunogenicity and peripheral immunosurveillance.Research.

1. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients achieving complete pathologic response (CPR) after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy seem to have a distinctive peripheral blood immune status at diagnosis and surgery.2. At diagnosis, CPR patients are characterized by a stronger previously induced immune response with a higher cytotoxic profile and lower levels of inhibitory cytokines and cells. 3. This exploratory analysis of the NADIM study supports the use of blood as a valid source for response biomarkers and may serve as a first step to elucidate response mechanisms to chemoimmunotherapy in NSCLC.