Allele-specific HLA LOH in solid tumors: Distinct patterns by tumor type and potential prognostic relevance Journal Article


Authors: Sewastianik, T.; Roy, C.; Gormally, M.; Montesion, M.; Halvey, P.; Jindal, A.; Lam, H.; Schoenfeld, A.; Klebanoff, C. A.; Opiteck, G. J.; Nagorsen, D.
Article Title: Allele-specific HLA LOH in solid tumors: Distinct patterns by tumor type and potential prognostic relevance
Abstract: <p>T-cell receptors (TCRs) recognize antigens derived from fragments of somatically expressed proteins that are degraded by the proteasome and presented by specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules. Recent therapeutic advances using the TCR as a tumor-targeting moiety have focused attention on HLA loss of heterozygosity (LOH) as a potential resistance mechanism. Allele-specific LOH, rather than allele-agnostic, is particularly pertinent, but rarely evaluated. Using a real-world dataset comprising 78,418 cases, we demonstrate that allele-specific LOH occurs at a relatively low frequency (<10%) across all patients with cancer. We observed a modest increase in allele-specific HLA LOH in cancers harboring associated neoantigen driver mutations (eg, KRAS or TP53 mutations), but the overall frequency remained consistently low. Furthermore, using an orthogonal dataset, we integrated clinical outcomes with HLA LOH and identified distinct impacts on overall survival in colorectal cancer (CRC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cohorts. For instance, A*02:01-specific LOH was linked to worse survival in CRC (HR 0.5355, 95% CI 0.2991 to 0.9589, p=0.0094) but showed a trend toward improved survival in NSCLC (HR 1.249, 95% CI 0.7778 to 2.005). These findings underscore the relevance of allele-specific HLA LOH assessments and reveal nuanced differences in its clinical implications, which should be accounted for in the optimization of TCR-based immunotherapies.</p>
Keywords: colorectal cancer; immunotherapy; non-small cell lung cancer; therapy; checkpoint blockade; cancer; adoptive cell therapy - act; human leukocyte antigen - hla
Journal Title: Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
Volume: 13
Issue: 9
ISSN: 2051-1426
Publisher: Biomed Central Ltd  
Date Published: 2025-09-09
Start Page: e012435
Language: English
ACCESSION: WOS:001569083500001
DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2025-012435
PROVIDER: wos
PMCID: PMC12421593
PUBMED: 40930743
Notes: Source: Wos
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