Recurrence of head and neck squamous cell cancer following resection may be predicted by assessment of immune infiltrates within the tumor (TUM10P.1056)

Tumor immune infiltrates are prognostic for many histologies, reinforcing the importance of the immune system in patient outcomes. Here we assessed a cohort of resected HPV+ and HPV- HNSCC tumors by multispectral imaging and a 770 gene digital transcript counting platform (NanoString nCounter system) that combines markers for 24 immune populations, 30 cancer antigens and relevant immune response genes. We performed IHC on FFPE and flowcytometry on enzyme-digested tumor allowing us to identify leukocyte subsets. Preliminary results show that while B cells, T cells and myeloid cells alternately predominate in different HNSCC tissue digests, NK cells rarely seen. Roughly half of our cohort has recurred at this time. Gene expression profiles indicate that tumors derived from patients with no evidence of disease contain more immune response related transcripts than tumors from patients that recur. Analysis of our discovery cohort by UPGMA hierarchical clustering indicates that the immune infiltrates in HNSCC may prove prognostic. Importantly, there are transcripts that may indicate a negative prognosis. Among these are a number of chemokines, TGFB2, the TLR4-TRIFF bridge TICAM2 and a molecule associated with anti-viral responses, IFITM1. Since these molecules constitute possible targets for therapeutic intervention, we are working to confirm their preponderance in tumors that recur by assessing a validation cohort as well as protein confirmation by IHC.