Predicting Immunotherapy Responses: Researchers Uncover Potential Methods
In the war against cancer, a new player has emerged: immunotherapy. This cutting-edge treatment harnesses the power of the body's immune system to wage a deadly assault on the disease.
However, not everyone and not every form of cancer can be treated with immunotherapy. Researchers are still scratching their heads trying to understand the puzzle of what makes immunotherapy effective for certain cancers and not for others.
Recently, researchers at Johns Hopkins University hit upon a breakthrough. They identified a specific subset of mutations in cancer tumors that indicates how receptive the tumor will be to immunotherapy.
This discovery could revolutionize the way doctors select patients for immunotherapy and even predict the outcome of treatment. The details of their finding were recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine.
What's the fuss about immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is a game-changer because it works by boosting the immune system, making it stronger and more adept at identifying and destroying cancer cells.
This might sound simple enough, but cancer cells are sneaky. They develop mutations that allow them to hide from the immune system. Immunotherapy gives the immune system a leg up in the fight against these mutated cells.
There are several types of immunotherapy, including checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cell therapy, and cancer vaccines. This arsenal of weapons is already being used to treat various types of cancer like breast cancer, melanoma, leukemia, and non-small cell lung cancer.
Researchers are also exploring the potential of immunotherapy for other types of cancer, such as prostate cancer, brain cancer, and ovarian cancer.
Mutation mastery
Until now, doctors have been using the number of mutations in a tumor - called the tumor mutational burden (TMB) - to predict how well a tumor will respond to immunotherapy.
Dr. Valsamo Anagnostou, a senior author of the Johns Hopkins study, explained, "A large number of mutations in cancer cells clearly distinguishes them from normal cells. This allows the immune system to recognize and attack the tumor, leading to longer clinical outcomes with immunotherapy."
However, not all mutations are created equal. In this study, Anagnostou and her team identified a special group of mutations, called 'persistent mutations', that continue to exist in cancer cells as the cancer evolves. This makes the cancer cells more visible to the immune system, improving the response to immunotherapy.
"Persistent mutations make the cancer cells continuously visible to the immune system and elicit an immune response," said Anagnostou. "This response is augmented with immune checkpoint blockade, allowing the immune system to continue eliminating cancer cells carrying these persistent mutations, leading to sustained immunologic tumor control and long survival."
In other words, these persistent mutations are the Achilles' heel of cancer cells, leaving them vulnerable to the immune system's attack.
Looking to the future
The findings of this study have the potential to transform the way doctors select patients for immunotherapy, making the treatment more tailored and effective.
Dr. Kim Margolin, a medical oncologist, praised the study, saying, "The highly-respected collaborative group in this article has moved beyond simple tumor mutational burden and has defined persistent mutations, loss of mutation-containing sequences, and in a new light."
"Persistent mutations and mutation-associated neo-antigens may be the most important determinants of an effective anticancer immune response," added Margolin. "This is stimulated and amplified by the immunotherapeutic agents currently in use, such as immune checkpoint-blocking antibodies."
Margolin believes that in the not-too-distant future, it will be possible to use high-throughput, next-generation sequencing techniques to study patients' mutational spectrum and categorize patients by their likelihood of response to immunotherapy.
This could potentially revolutionize cancer treatment, making it more personalized and effective. Watch this space!
- The immune system's ability to effectively target certain cancer cells using immunotherapy has intriguing ties with the presence of a specific set of mutations in those cells, known as 'persistent mutations', as identified by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
- These persistent mutations, much like Achilles' heel, make cancer cells more vulnerable to the immune system's attack, potentially improving the outcome of treatment with immunotherapy.
- The discovery of persistent mutations could lead to a more tailored approach in selecting patients for immunotherapy, increasing its effectiveness and potentially revolutionizing cancer treatment.
