Predicting Immunotherapy Response: Scientists Discover Strategies for Anticipating Treatment Results
new breakthrough findings in the fight against cancer have been published in the journal Nature Medicine. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland have identified a specific subset of mutations in a cancer tumor that hints at how receptive it will be to immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy, one of the newest treatments for cancer, uses the body's immune system to fight the disease. Traditionally, cancer cells develop mutations that allow them to stay hidden from the immune system. Immunotherapy provides a boost to the body's immune system, making it easier for it to find and destroy cancer cells.
Currently, not every person or every type of cancer can be treated with immunotherapy. Researchers continue to look for answers as to what might cause immunotherapy to fail. In this new study, the researchers have discovered a group of mutations, which they call "persistent mutations," that are less likely to go away as cancer evolves. This allows the cancer tumor to remain visible to the body's immune system, ensuring better response to immunotherapy.
The researchers believe their findings will help doctors more accurately select people for immunotherapy as well as better predict the outcomes from the treatment. According to Dr. Valsamo Anagnostou, a senior author of the study and an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, persistent mutation load could 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.
The relationship between persistent mutations in cancer tumors and their response to immunotherapy is complex and influenced by specific mutation characteristics and their effects on tumor-immune interactions. Some mutations have high immunogenicity, triggering stronger immune responses, while others may have lower immunogenicity that makes it more difficult for immune cells to detect and kill cancer cells. These findings highlight the importance of detailed genetic profiling beyond overall mutation burden to predict and tailor immunotherapy outcomes effectively.
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- In the fight against cancer, the newer immunotherapy system, which boosts the body's immune response to destroy cancer cells, is being researched with increased interest due to its potential to treat certain medical conditions and cancer types.
- Scientists continue to probe the science of immunotherapy, trying to understand what causes immunotherapy to work or fail, and have recently discovered that persistent mutations in cancer cells can make them more visible to the body's immune system, improving the chances of successful treatment.
- The advancements in immunotherapy, including the understanding of persistent mutations and their impact on the immune system's response to cancer, are crucial for health-and-wellness, as they help improve the selection of people for immunotherapy and better predict the treatment's outcomes.
