The immune landscape of prostate cancer and nomination of PD-L2 as a potential therapeutic target

Abstract

Background: Immunotherapy has been less successful in treating prostate cancer than other solid tumors. We sought to better understand the immune landscape in prostate cancer and identify immune-related biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets. Methods: We analyzed gene expression data from 7826 prospectively collected prostatectomy samples (2013-2016), and 1567 retrospective samples with long-term clinical outcomes, for a total of 9393 samples, all profiled on the same commercial clinical platform in a CLIA-certified lab. The primary outcome was distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). Secondary outcomes included biochemical recurrence-free survival (bRFS), prostate cancer-specific survival (PCSS), and overall survival (OS). All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of hallmark pathways demonstrated an immune-related tumor cluster. Increased estimated immune content scores based on immune-specific genes from the literature were associated with worse bRFS (hazard ratio [HR]=1.26 [95% confidence interval [CI]=1.12 to 1.42]; P