Integrated analysis reveals prognostic value of HLA-I LOH in triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract

Background: Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs), especially those non-immune-inflamed tumors, have a poor prognosis and limited therapies. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-I not only contributes to antitumor immune response and the phenotype of the tumor microenvironment, but also is a negative predictor of outcomes after immunotherapy. However, the importance of HLA functional status in TNBCs remains poorly understood.

Methods: Using the largest original multiomics datasets on TNBCs, we systematically characterized the HLA-Ⅰ status of TNBCs from the perspective of HLA-Ⅰ homogeneity and loss of heterozygosity (LOH). The prognostic significance of HLA-I status was measured. To explain the potential mechanism of prognostic value in HLA-Ⅰ status, the mutational signature, copy number alteration, neoantigen and intratumoral heterogeneity were measured. Furthermore, the correlation between HLA-Ⅰ functional status and the tumor immune microenvironment was analyzed.

Results: LOH and homogeneity in HLA-I accounted for 18% and 21% of TNBCs, respectively. HLA-I LOH instead of HLA-I homogeneity was an independent prognostic biomarker in TNBCs. In particular, for patients with non-immune-inflamed tumors, HLA-I LOH indicated a worse prognosis than HLA-I non-LOH. Furthermore, integrated genomic and transcriptomic analysis showed that HLA-I LOH was accompanied by upregulated scores of mutational signature 3 and homologous recombination deficiency scores, which implied the failure of DNA double-strand break repair. Moreover, HLA-I LOH had higher mutation and neoantigen loads and more subclones than HLA-I non-LOH. These results indicated that although HLA-I LOH tumors with failure of DNA double-strand break repair were prone to produce neoantigens, their limited capacity for antigen presentation finally contributed to poor immune selection pressure.

Conclusion: Our study illustrates the genomic landscape of HLA-I functional status and stresses the prognostic significance of HLA-I LOH in TNBCs. For "cold" tumors in TNBCs, HLA-I LOH indicated a worse prognosis than HLA-I non-LOH.

Keywords: antigen presentation; breast neoplasms.