Predicting Immunotherapy Responses: Scientists Unveil Potential Methods for Foreseeing Results
Every year, scientists develop new ways to fight the dreaded cancer. One of the latest methods up for grabs is immunotherapy. But, not everyone and every type of cancer will respond positively to immunotherapy. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have discovered a specific group of mutations in cancer tumors that can predict how likely it is for a tumor to succumb to immunotherapy treatments.
Immunotherapy works by boosting the body's immune system, making it easier for it to detect and destroy cancer cells. However, cancer cells often come with mutations that let them hide from the immune system.
Immunotherapy is currently useful for treating breast cancer, melanoma, leukemia, and non-small cell lung cancer. Scientists are now exploring its potential for other types of cancer, like prostate cancer, brain cancer, and ovarian cancer.
Existing research shows that doctors look at the total number of mutations in a tumor—known as tumor mutation burden (TMB)—to determine how a tumor may react to immunotherapy. However, a group of researchers from Johns Hopkins University have identified another crucial factor: persistent mutations.
Persistent mutations are a specific group of mutations within the TMB that remain in cancer cells and make them more visible to the immune system. This increased visibility enables a stronger response to immunotherapy. The presence of these persistent mutations may help doctors choose patients for clinical trials of novel immunotherapies or predict the outcomes of standard-of-care immune checkpoint blockade treatment.
This study, recently published in the journal Nature Medicine, could pave the way for more accurate patient selection and better treatment outcomes for immunotherapy in the future.
Immunotherapy uses the body's immune system to attack cancer cells. Typically, cancer cells develop mutations that allow them to evade the immune system. Immunotherapy provides an extra boost to the immune system, making it more effective at finding and destroying cancer cells.
There are several types of immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T cell therapy, and adoptive cell transfer.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of immunotherapy that takes advantage of proteins on the surface of immune cells called "checkpoints." These checkpoints regulate the immune response, but cancer cells can use them to avoid detection by the immune system. By blocking these checkpoints, immune checkpoint inhibitors allow the immune cells to attack the cancer cells more aggressively.
CAR-T cell therapy involves modifying a patient's immune cells, known as T-cells, to recognize and attack cancer cells. Adoptive cell transfer is a similar process, but instead of modifying the patient's own cells, doctors use donor cells.
Radiation therapy can also boost the immune system's response to cancer cells by triggering a localized inflammatory response.
- The body's immune system, when boosted through immunotherapy, can make it easier for it to detect and destroy cancer cells that have not developed mutations allowing them to evade the immune system.
- Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have discovered that a specific group of persistant mutations in cancer tumors can predict the likelihood of a tumor succumbing to immunotherapy treatments.
- By identifying persistent mutations, doctors can make more informed decisions when choosing patients for clinical trials of novel immunotherapies or predicting outcomes of standard-of-care immune checkpoint blockade treatment.
- Existing research shows that doctors often look at the total number of mutations in a tumor, known as tumor mutation burden (TMB), to determine how a tumor may react to immunotherapy.
- In addition to immunotherapy, there are several other types like immune checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T cell therapy, and adoptive cell transfer, all of which work by different methods to attack cancer cells.
- Radiation therapy can provide an extra boost to the immune system's response to cancer cells by triggering a localized inflammatory response, further aiding in the body's fight against medical-conditions like cancer for overall health-and-wellness.
