CD73 underexpression

Median age was 59 years (range 38-84 years), and the majority of the patients presented with high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC, 85.4%) and stage III-IV disease (89.6%) at diagnosis. Among the treatment-naive patients, 17.1% of patients (n=6) showed low CD73 expression (grade 1), whereas 60.0 % of patients (n=21) showed high CD73 expression (grade 2/3). All of the BRCA1/2-mutated tumors were high CD73 (n=7), whereas 20% of BRCA1/2-non-mutated tumors (n=5) were low CD73 expression.

Our findings reveal promising results for non-invasive CT-scan-based prediction of CD73 expression in CRLM and warrant further validation as to whether rad-CD73 could assist oncologists as a biomarker of prognosis and response to immunotherapies targeting the adenosine pathway.

CD155 expression was associated with a poor response to NAC and poor prognosis in this chemotherapy-resistant TNBC cohort, supporting the use of additional immune checkpoint receptor inhibitor therapy. Interestingly, the interaction between CD155 and CD73 at lower levels resulted in a worse outcome than either marker alone, which calls for further investigation in future studies.

Our results identify a previously unrecognized role of CD73 producing B cells in the progression of pancreatic cancer and underscore the potential significance of the B cell-CD73- axis as a immunotherapeutic target, especially in patients with high CD73 expression in Ln8a, possibly influencing the multidisciplinary decision making before surgical resection in advanced cancer stages.