Dual prognostic classification of triple-negative breast cancer by DNA damage immune response and homologous recombination deficiency

PURPOSE Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease. We previously showed that homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and the DNA damage immune response (DDIR) signature are prognostic in TNBC. We hypothesized that these biomarkers reflect related but not completely interdependent biological processes, that their combined use would be prognostic, and that simultaneous assessment of the immunologic microenvironment and susceptibility to DNA damaging therapies might be able to identify subgroups with distinct therapeutic vulnerabilities.

METHODS We analyzed the dual DDIR/HRD classification in 341 patients with TNBC treated with adjuvant anthracycline-based chemotherapy on the SWOG S9313 trial and corroborated our findings in The Cancer Genome Atlas breast cancer data set.

RESULTS DDIR/HRD classification is highly prognostic in TNBC and identifies biologically and immunologically distinct subgroups. Immune-enriched DDIR+/HRD+ TNBCs have the most favorable prognosis, and DDIR+/HRD– and DDIR–/HRD+ TNBCs have favorable intermediate prognosis, despite the latter being immune-depleted. DDIR–/HRD– TNBCs have the worst prognosis and represent an internally heterogeneous group of immune-depleted chemoresistant tumors.

CONCLUSION Our findings propose DDIR/HRD classification as a potentially clinically relevant approach to categorize tumors on the basis of therapeutic vulnerabilities.