Fig. 3: Predictive biomarkers of response to NACT + Pembrolizumab.

A Boxplots representing the scaled expression scores of RNAseq gene signatures before treatment and of immune cell densities before treatment that significantly differed between non progressors, NPr, (green-blue, N = 7 NACT and N = 13 NACT + P) and progressors, Pr, (dark yellow, N = 13 NACT and N = 19 NACT + P) receiving NACT (top) versus patients receiving NACT + P (bottom). The centerline of boxes depicts the median values; the bottom and top box edges correspond to the first and third quartiles. Statistical significance was evaluated using two-sided Wilcoxon rank sum test and unadjusted p-values are indicated on top of boxplots. For NACT + P arm, M2 (Q) = 0.037; Mono (Q) = 0.006; CD8B/FOXP3 = 0.008; Neu (MCP) = 0.045; Endo (MCP) = 0.027; CD8⁺Ki67+ = 0.041 B ROC curves representing the area under curve for the models considering monocyte & endothelial gene signature expression & CD8B/FOXP3 gene expression ratio (dark blue), the same 3 variables and PD-L1 expression (light blue), PD-L1 expression and intra-epithelial CD8⁺ T cell density at baseline (green) and PD-L1 expression alone (red) in the NACT + P arm (left) vs NACT (right) arm. 95% CI was calculated for the area under the curve of the different models. No adjustment for multiple comparisons was made. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.