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A refined use of mutations to guide immunotherapy decisions

Assessment of a tumour’s mutational profile offers a way of predicting a person’s response to anticancer therapies called immune-checkpoint inhibitors. It seems that such approaches might fall short for people who are not of European ancestry.
  1. Chao Cheng

    1. Chao Cheng is in the Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA, and at the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

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  2. Christopher I. Amos

    1. Christopher I. Amos is in the Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA, and at the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

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Immunotherapy harnesses the immune system to target tumour cells, and is used to treat several types of cancer. The therapy targets ‘immune checkpoint’ proteins, such as the protein PD-1, that can dampen immune responses. However, only a subset of people respond to treatment with what are called immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)1. Writing in Cancer Cell, Nassar et al.2 provide insight into how decisions to use such treatments might be improved.

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Nature 612, 639-641 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04448-z

References

  1. Haslam, A. & Prasad. V. JAMA Netw. Open 2, e192535 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Nassar, A. H. et al. Cancer Cell 40, 1161–1172 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Cristescu, R. et al. J. Immunother Cancer 10, e003091 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Aganezov, S. et al. Science 376, eab13533 (2022).

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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