Predicting Immunotherapy Success: Scientists Discover Methods for Forecasting Resultant Responses
Year after year, scientists tirelessly work on developing innovative treatments for the dreadful disease known as cancer. One of the latest arsenals against this relentless enemy is immunotherapy. However, not all people and not all types of cancer respond positively to immunotherapy treatments. To find out why, researchers from Johns Hopkins University have made a groundbreaking discovery: a specific subset of cancer tumor mutations that act as a roadmap for immunotherapy success.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, identifies these mutations as "persistent mutations"- mutations that don't fade away as cancer evolves, keeping the tumor visible to the immune system and making it more susceptible to immunotherapy. According to Dr. Valsamo Anagnostou, a senior author of the study and an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, the presence of these persistent mutations could help predict a patient's response to immune checkpoint blockade and assist doctors in selecting the best immunotherapy treatments.
"Tumor mutation burden is the number of changes in the genetic material and particularly in the DNA sequence of cancer cells, known as mutations," explains Anagnostou. "A large number of mutations in cancer cells clearly distinguishes them from normal cells—making them more visible to the immune system. This difference creates more attack opportunities for the immune system, resulting in longer clinical outcomes with immunotherapy for some tumors that harbor a high tumor mutation burden."
However, it's not just about the number of mutations; it's about which mutations persist, or remain present, as cancer evolves. These persistent mutations create a unique signature for the cancer, a calling card that the immune system can recognize and attack.
The finding is significant because it opens up new possibilities for cancer treatment. Tumors with higher persistent mutation loads, researchers believe, are more likely to respond to immune checkpoint blockade therapy. In the future, by understanding these persistent mutations, doctors could potentially predict how a patient will respond to immunotherapy.
It's essential to note that while this research sheds light on the importance of persistent mutations, there is still much to understand about the role they play in cancer growth and development. As the field progresses, more insights into these persistent mutations could lead to the discovery of novel and effective immunotherapy strategies.
In addition to this research, several specific mutations, such as Mismatch Repair Deficiency (MMRd), BRCA1 and BRCA2, BAP1, and high Tumor Mutational Burden (TMB), have been identified as predictive of a positive response to immunotherapy. As the understanding of cancer mutations continues to grow, so too does the potential for targeted immunotherapy treatments tailored to each patient's unique genetic profile.
The study from Johns Hopkins University reveals that certain persistent mutations in cancer tumors, which don't fade away as the disease evolves, can make them more susceptible to immunotherapy. These mutations act as a roadmap for immunotherapy success and could help predict a patient's response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Consequently, understanding these persistent mutations could potentially lead to the discovery of novel and effective immunotherapy strategies.
