TIGIT expression in renal cell carcinoma infiltrating T cells is variable and inversely correlated with PD-1 and LAG3.

Abstract

Purpose: Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but many patients do not respond to therapy and the majority develop resistant disease over time. Thus, there is increasing need for alternative immunomodulating agents. The co-inhibitory molecule T-cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT) may play a role in resistance to approved immune checkpoint inhibitors and is being investigated as a potential therapeutic target. The purpose of this study was to quantify TIGIT positivity in tumor-infiltrating T cells in RCC.

Methods: We employed tissue microarrays containing specimens from primary RCC tumors, adjacent normal renal tissue, and RCC metastases to quantify TIGIT within tumor-infiltrating CD3⁺ T cells using quantitative immunofluorescent analysis. We also compared these results to TIGIT⁺ CD3⁺ levels in four other tumor types (melanoma, non-small cell lung, cervical, and head and neck cancers).

Results: We did not observe significant differences in TIGIT positivity between primary RCC tumors and patient-matched metastatic samples. We found that the degree of TIGIT positivity in RCC is comparable to that in lung cancer but lower than that in melanoma, cervical, and head and neck cancers. Correlation analysis comparing TIGIT positivity to previously published, patient-matched spatial proteomic data by our group revealed a negative association between TIGIT and the checkpoint proteins PD-1 and LAG3.

Conclusion: Our findings support careful evaluation of TIGIT expression on T cells in primary or metastatic RCC specimens for patients who may be treated with TIGIT-targeting antibodies, as increased TIGIT positivity might be associated with a greater likelihood of response to therapy.