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EPHA5 mutation predicts the durable clinical benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with lung adenocarcinoma

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 28, pages 864–874 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has shown remarkable clinical benefit in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. Genomic mutations may be applicable to predict the response to ICIs. Eph receptor A5 (EPHA5) is frequently mutated in breast cancer, lung cancer, and other tumors; however, its association with outcome in patients who receive immunotherapy remains unknown. In this study, we report that EPHA5 mutations were associated with increased tumor mutation burden (TMB), neoantigen load, levels of immune-related gene expression signatures, and enhanced tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in LUAD. LUAD patients with EPHA5 mutations in the immunotherapy cohort achieved a longer progression-free survival (PFS) time than patients with wild-type EPHA5. Immune response pathways were among the top enriched pathways in samples with EPHA5 mutations. In addition, patients with EPHA5 mutations tended to be more sensitive to certain targeted molecular inhibitors, including serdemetan, lox2, and PF1-1. Collectively, our results suggest that identifying mutations in the EPHA5 gene may provide insight into the genome-wide mutational burden and may serve as a biomarker to predict the immune response of patients with LUAD.

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Fig. 1: Landscapes of EPHA5 gene mutations in LUAD.
Fig. 2: EPHA5 mutation is associated with tumor immunogenicity and immunotherapy outcomes in LUAD patients.
Fig. 3: EPHA5 mutation is associated with high CNV counts.
Fig. 4: EPHA5 mutation is associated with a unique immune response.
Fig. 5: EPHA5 mutation is associated with high mutation frequencies of DDR pathway genes.
Fig. 6: EPHA5 mutation and drug selection of LUAD cells.
Fig. 7: Pathway enrichment analysis of EPHA5 mutation.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Weimei Huang, Anqi Lin, Peng Luo

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

    Weimei Huang, Anqi Lin, Peng Luo, Yuchen Liu, Wentao Xu, Weiliang Zhu, Ting Wei & Jian Zhang

  2. Department of Pathology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

    Weimei Huang & Linlang Guo

  3. Department of Information, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

    Qingwen Lyu

  4. Guangdong fusion application engineering center of medical big data, Guangzhou, China

    Qingwen Lyu

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Huang, W., Lin, A., Luo, P. et al. EPHA5 mutation predicts the durable clinical benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Cancer Gene Ther 28, 864–874 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41417-020-0207-6

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