T Cell–Mediated Antitumor Immunity Cooperatively Induced by TGFbR1 Antagonism and Gemcitabine Counteracts Reformation of the Stromal Barrier in Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

The desmoplastic stroma of pancreatic cancers forms a physical barrier that impedes intratumoral drug delivery. Attempts to modulate the desmoplastic stroma to increase delivery of administered chemotherapy have not shown positive clinical results thus far, and preclinical reports in which chemotherapeutic drugs were coadministered with antistromal therapies did not universally demonstrate increased genotoxicity despite increased intratumoral drug levels. In this study, we tested whether TGFb antagonism can break the stromal barrier, enhance perfusion and tumoral drug delivery, and interrogated cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the tumor prevents synergism with coadministered gemcitabine. TGFb inhibition in genetically engineered murine models (GEMM) of pancreas cancer enhanced tumoral perfusion and increased intratumoral gemcitabine levels. However, tumors rapidly adapted to TGFb-dependent stromal modulation, and intratumoral perfusion returned to pre-treatment levels upon extended TGFb inhibition. Perfusion was governed by the phenotypic identity and distribution of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) with the myelofibroblastic phenotype (myCAFs), and myCAFs which harbored unique genomic signatures rapidly escaped the restricting effects of TGFb inhibition. Despite the reformation of the stromal barrier and reversal of initially increased intratumoral exposure levels, TGFb inhibition in cooperation with gemcitabine effectively suppressed tumor growth via cooperative reprogramming of T regulatory cells and stimulation of CD8 T cell–mediated antitumor activity. The antitumor activity was further improved by the addition of anti–PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockade to offset adaptive PD-L1 upregulation induced by TGFb inhibition. These findings support the development of combined antistroma anticancer therapies capable of impacting the tumor beyond the disruption of the desmoplastic stroma as a physical barrier to improve drug delivery.