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. 2025 Jul 1:S1535-6108(25)00262-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2025.06.012. Online ahead of print.

Subclonal immune evasion in non-small cell lung cancer

Collaborators, Affiliations
Free article

Subclonal immune evasion in non-small cell lung cancer

Krijn K Dijkstra et al. Cancer Cell. .
Free article

Abstract

Cancers rarely respond completely to immunotherapy. While tumors consist of multiple genetically distinct clones, whether this affects the potential for immune escape remains unclear due to an inability to isolate and propagate individual subclones from human cancers. Here, we leverage the multi-region TRACERx lung cancer evolution study to generate a patient-derived organoid - T cell co-culture platform that allows the functional analysis of subclonal immune escape at single clone resolution. We establish organoid lines from 11 separate tumor regions from three patients, followed by isolation of 81 individual clonal sublines. Co-culture with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) or natural killer (NK) cells reveals cancer-intrinsic and subclonal immune escape in all 3 patients. Immune evading subclones represent genetically distinct lineages with a unique evolutionary history. This indicates that immune evading and non-evading subclones can be isolated from the same tumor, suggesting that subclonal tumor evolution directly affects immune escape.

Keywords: T cell; cancer evolution; immune escape; immune evasion; immunosurveillance; immunotherapy; intratumor heterogeneity; non-small cell lung cancer; organoids; tumor evolution; tumor immunology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests K.K.D. provided consultancy services to Achilles Therapeutics UK Ltd. R.V. declares research funding from CRUK TDL–Ono–LifeArc alliance and Genesis Therapeutics. K.L. has a patent on indel burden and CPI response pending and speaker fees from Roche tissue diagnostics, research funding from CRUK TDL–Ono–LifeArc alliance, Genesis Therapeutics, and consulting roles with Ellipses Pharma, Monopteros, Tempus, Saga Diagnostics, and Kynos Therapeutics. K.L. is a current employee of Isomorphic Labs. C.P. holds a patent pending in determining HLA disruption (PCT/EP2023/059039). J.v.d.H. received research funding from Sanofi S.A. outside this work. D.A.M. reports speaker fees from AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, BMS and Takeda, consultancy fees from AstraZeneca, Thermo Fisher, Takeda, Amgen, Janssen, MIM Software, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Eli Lilly and has received educational support from Takeda and Amgen. C.T.H. received speaker fees from AstraZeneca and Merck, research funding from Roche, Astra Zeneca and UCLH NIHR BRC, and has a paid advisory role for GenesisCareUK. E.E.V. is founder and current member of the supervisory board of the Hartwig Medical Foundation, independent non-executive director of Sanofi, co-founder of Mosaic Therapeutics, and board member and founder of the Center for Personalized Cancer Treatment. He has received clinical study grants from Amgen, AstraZeneca, BI, BMS, Clovis, Eli Lilly, GSK, Ipsen, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, and Sanofi. J.L.R. reports speaker fees from Boehringer Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline, consults for Achilles Therapeutics Ltd and has filed patents for T cell driven cancer early detection (PCT/EP2023/076521 and PCT/EP2023/076511). M.J.-H. has consulted for Astex Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer and Achilles Therapeutics, and is a member of the Achilles Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Board and Steering Committee, has received speaker honoraria from Pfizer, Astex Pharmaceuticals, Oslo Cancer Cluster, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech and GenesisCare. M.J.-H is listed as a co-inventor on a European patent application relating to methods to detect lung cancer (PCT/US2017/028013), this patent has been licensed to commercial entities and, under terms of employment, M.J.-H. is due a share of any revenue generated from such license(s), and is also listed as a co-inventor on the GB priority patent application (GB2400424.4) with title: Treatment and Prevention of Lung Cancer. N.M. has stock options in and has consulted for Achilles Therapeutics and holds a European patent in determining HLA LOH (PCT/GB2018/052004), a patent pending in determining HLA disruption (PCT/EP2023/059039), and is a co-inventor to a patent to identify responders to cancer treatment (PCT/GB2018/051912). S.A.Q. is a founder, CSO, and holds stock options of Achilles Therapeutics, a company developing personalized T cell therapies targeting clonal neoantigens. C.S. acknowledges grants from AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Roche-Ventana, Invitae (previously Archer Dx Inc - collaboration in minimal residual disease sequencing technologies), Ono Pharmaceutical, and Personalis. He is Chief Investigator for the AZ MeRmaiD 1 and 2 clinical trials and is the Steering Committee Chair. He is also Co-Chief Investigator of the NHS Galleri trial funded by GRAIL and a paid member of GRAIL’s Scientific Advisory Board. He receives consultant fees from Achilles Therapeutics (also SAB member), Bicycle Therapeutics (also an SAB member and Chair of the Clinical Advisory Group), Genentech, Medicxi, Novartis, China Innovation Centre of Roche (CICoR) formerly Roche Innovation Centre – Shanghai, Metabomed (until July 2022), Relay Therapeutics SAB member, Saga Diagnostics SAB member and the Sarah Cannon Research Institute. C.S. has received honoraria from Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Illumina, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and Roche-Ventana. C.S. has previously held stock options in Apogen Biotechnologies and GRAIL, and currently has stock options in Epic Bioscience, Bicycle Therapeutics, Relay Therapeutics, and has stock options and is co-founder of Achilles Therapeutics. C.S. declares a patent application for methods to detect lung cancer (PCT/US2017/028013); targeting neoantigens (PCT/EP2016/059401); identifying patient response to immune checkpoint blockade (PCT/EP2016/071471); methods for lung cancer detection (US20190106751A1); identifying patients who respond to cancer treatment (PCT/GB2018/051912); determining HLA LOH (PCT/GB2018/052004); predicting survival rates of patients with cancer (PCT/GB2020/050221); methods and systems for tumor monitoring (PCT/EP2022/077987); analysis of HLA alleles transcriptional deregulation (PCT/EP2023/059039). C.S. is an inventor on a European patent application (PCT/GB2017/053289) relating to assay technology to detect tumor recurrence. This patent has been licensed to a commercial entity and under their terms of employment C.S. is due a revenue share of any revenue generated from such license(s). C.S. is a Royal Society Napier Research Professor (RSRP∖R∖210001).

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