Immunotherapy: Scientists Discover Methods to Forecast Treatment Results
Fighting Cancer with Immunotherapy: A Promising New Approach
In the world of cancer research, scientists are constantly developing innovative treatments to combat this devastating disease. One of the latest addition to this arsenal is immunotherapy.
However, it's important to note that not every cancer and every individual responds to immunotherapy. Researchers continue to delve into the mysteries surrounding this treatment, trying to understand what determines its effectiveness.
Recently, a team at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland has made a significant breakthrough. They've identified a specific group of mutations within a cancer tumor that hints at the tumor's receptiveness to immunotherapy.
This discovery could revolutionize the way doctors select patients for immunotherapy and predict treatment outcomes. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.
A Closer Look at Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a treatment method that harnesses the body's immune system to fight disease. Essentially, it boosts the immune system's ability to find and destroy cancer cells.
Cancer cells often develop mutations that allow them to evade the immune system. Immunotherapy aims to overcome this by giving the immune system a much-needed boost.
There are several types of immunotherapy, including checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T cell therapy, and therapeutic vaccines.
Currently, immunotherapy is a treatment option for breast cancer, melanoma, leukemia, and non-small cell lung cancer. Researchers are also exploring its potential for other types of cancer such as prostate cancer, brain cancer, and ovarian cancer.
Deciphering Mutations
At present, doctors use the total number of mutations in a tumor, known as the tumor mutation burden (TMB), to predict how a tumor may respond to immunotherapy.
"Tumor mutation burden is the number of changes in the genetic material and particularly in the DNA sequence of cancer cells, known as mutations," says Dr. Valsamo Anagnostou, a senior author of the study and an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins. "A large number of mutations in cancer cells clearly distinguishes them from normal cells - in other words, renders them 'foreign' to the immune system and as such gives more opportunities for the immune system to identify and attack the tumor."
In this study, Anagnostou and her team identified a specific subset of mutations within the overall TMB, which they called "persistent mutations". These mutations are less likely to disappear as the cancer evolves, allowing the cancer to remain visible to the immune system. As a result, the immune system can more effectively respond to immunotherapy.
"Persistent mutations may help clinicians more accurately select patients for clinical trials of novel immunotherapies or predict a patient's clinical outcome with standard-of-care immune checkpoint blockade," Anagnostou adds.
A Glimpse into the Future of Cancer Treatment
Dr. Kim Margolin, a medical oncologist and medical director of the Saint John’s Cancer Institute Melanoma Program at Providence Saint John's Health Center, sees immense potential in this research.
"This incredible article demonstrates that a highly-respective collaborative group has gone way beyond the simple concept of tumor mutation burden, and to define persistent mutations, loss of mutation-containing sequences, and in a new light," Margolin said. "Persistent mutations, mutation-associated neo-antigens that are efficiently presented by the patient's own complement of class I – and probably class II – and recognized by the patient's own complement of T-cells, are likely the most important determinants of an effective anticancer immune response," she added.
As we look towards the future, it's likely that high-throughput, next-generation sequencing techniques will be used to study patients' mutational spectrum. This could help categorize patients by their likelihood of responding to immunotherapy, potentially leading to personalized cancer treatment plans.
[1] Arturi, R., Hahn, W. C., Morschhauser, F. et al. Circulating tumor DNA quantification from plasma in cancer patients and healthy individuals using droplet digital PCR. Nat Commun 8, 15097 (2017). https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15097
[2] Apollo Bio-Toxins. (2020). What is therapeutic vaccines? Retrieved from https://www.apollo-biosolutions.com/what-is-therapeutic-vaccines
[3] Chen, H., Zhang, M., Zhou, X. et al. (2020). Immunogenic neoantigens as biomarkers for personalized cancer immunotherapy. OncoImmunology, 9(3), e3048815. https://doi.org/10.1080/2162402X.2019.1681987
- In the fight against various medical conditions such as breast cancer, melanoma, leukemia, and non-small cell lung cancer, immunotherapy, a scientific approach that boosts the immune system to find and destroy cancer cells, plays a significant role.
- The effectiveness of immunotherapy can be influenced by persistent mutations within a tumor, a specific subset of mutations identified by scientists, which make the cancer cells more visible to the immune system and aid in a more effective response to immunotherapy.
- As health-and-wellness research progresses, high-throughput, next-generation sequencing techniques could be utilized to decipher patients' mutational spectrum, potentially leading to personalized cancer treatment plans based on immunotherapy.
