Prognostic Biomarker TP53 Mutations for Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy and Its Association With Tumor Microenvironment of Lung Adenocarcinoma

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), is characterized by durable responses and improved survival in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, there is a lack of predictive biomarkers to optimize the use of ICIs in cancers. The clinical benefit of patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) harboring TP53 mutations undergoing conventional treatments need to be optimized. Recently, studies indicated that TP53 mutations may be associated with improved survival in patients treated with ICIs. The immunotherapy cohort was used to estimate the association of TP53 mutations with the immune prognosis of LUAD. Genomic data were used to estimate the difference in immunogenicity and mutations in DNA damage repair (DDR). Clinical and genomic data were collected from patients with LUAD treated with ICIs and profiled using panel. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-LUAD cohort was used to distinguish the tumor microenvironment, mutational profiles, immunogenicity and DDR mutations between TP53-mutated and TP53-wild-type. In the MSKCC-LUAD cohort, TP53-mutated LUAD showed significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) (P = 0.017, HR = 0.69 [95%CI: 0.50–0.94]). CIBERSORT suggested that TP53-mutated had a higher proportion of activated immune cell infiltration. Additionally, TP53-mutated LUAD had higher expression levels of chemokines and proinflammatory mediators, increased tumor burden, neoantigen load, and DDR mutations. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) suggests that TP53-mutated LUAD is significantly enriched in the cell cycle and DDR pathway but significantly downregulated in lipid metabolism. Our findings suggested that TP53 mutation may be a potential biomarker of immunotherapy for LUAD.