Cancer genomic alterations and microenvironmental features encode synergistic interactions with disease outcomes

Abstract

Oncogenesis, tumor progression and therapy response are shaped by somatic alterations in the cancer genome and features of the tumor immune microenvironment (TME). How interactions between these two systems influence tumor evolution and clinical outcomes remains incompletely understood. To address this challenge, we developed the multi-omics analysis framework PACIFIC that systematically integrates genetic cancer drivers and infiltration profiles of immune cells to find pairwise combinations of drivers and TME characteristics that jointly associate with clinical outcomes. By analyzing 8500 primary tumor samples of 26 cancer types, we report 34 immunogenomic interactions (IGXs) in 13 cancer types in which context-specific combinations of genomic alterations and immune cell levels were significantly correlated with patient survival. Subsets of tumor samples defined by some IGXs were characterized by tumor-intrinsic and microenvironmental metrics of immunogenicity and differential expression of immunotherapy target genes. In luminal-A breast cancer, an IGX involving MEN1 deletion combined with reduced levels of neutrophils associated with lower progression-free survival and deregulation of immune signaling pathways, as observed in two independent cancer genomics datasets. These results showcase the ability of PACIFIC to integrate complex multi-omics datasets with clinical information, enabling the identification of clinically relevant immunogenomic interactions. Such interactions provide a rich set of hypotheses for mechanistic studies and the development of biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Implications: Co-occurrence patterns of cancer drivers and TME characteristics highlight synergistic interactions with prognostic potential.