Integrative genomic analysis of DLBCL identifies immune environments associated with bispecific antibody response

Year: 2025 DOI: 10.1182/blood.2024025355
Most patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with immunotherapies such as bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells fail to achieve durable treatment responses, underscoring the need for a deeper understanding of mechanisms that regulate the immune environment and response to treatment. Here, an integrative multiomics approach was applied to multiple large independent data sets to characterize DLBCL immune environments and to define their association with tumor cell–intrinsic genomic alterations and outcomes to CD19-directed CAR T-cell and CD20 × CD3 BsAb therapies. This approach effectively segregated DLBCLs into 4 immune quadrants (IQs) defined by cell-of-origin and immune-related gene set expression scores. These quadrants consisted of activated B cell–like (ABC) hot, ABC cold, germinal center B cell–like (GCB) hot, and GCB cold DLBCLs. Recurrent genomic alterations were enriched in each IQ, suggesting that lymphoma cell-intrinsic alterations contribute significantly to orchestrating unique DLBCL immune environments. For instance, SOCS1 loss-of-function mutations were significantly enriched among GCB hot DLBCLs, identifying a putative subset of inflamed DLBCLs that may be inherently susceptible to immunotherapy. In patients with relapsed/refractory DLBCL, DLBCL-IQ assignment correlated significantly with clinical benefit with a CD20 × CD3 BsAb (N = 74), but not with CD19-directed CAR T cells (Stanford, N = 51; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, N = 69). Thus, DLBCL-IQ provides a new framework to conceptualize the DLBCL immune landscape and suggests the endogenous immune environment has a more significant impact on outcomes to BsAb than CAR T-cell treatment.