Immunotherapy: Scientists Discover Methods for Forecasting Results
In the quest for new cancer treatments, here's an update on immunotherapy - using our immune system to fight off this nasty disease. The idea is to boost our immune system so it can better detect and eliminate cancer cells, including those that have hidden mutations.
However, not everyone and not all cancers respond to immunotherapy. Scientists are trying to understand why, and recently, researchers from Johns Hopkins made a promising discovery. They identified a specific subset of mutations in a cancer tumor that indicates how receptive it will be to immunotherapy.
This is big news for doctors, as it will help them choose patients more accurately for immunotherapy and better predict the outcomes of treatment. Their findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine.
So, what exactly is immunotherapy? Simply put, it's a treatment that revs up our immune system to battle cancer cells. These cancer cells usually develop mutations that allow them to hide from our immune system. Immunotherapy gives our body a much-needed boost to find and destroy these hidden cells.
There are several types of immunotherapy, including vaccines, cytokines, and immune checkpoint inhibitors. They are currently being used for treatments such as breast cancer, melanoma, leukemia, and non-small cell lung cancer. Researchers are also looking into using immunotherapy for other types of cancer, such as prostate, brain, and ovarian cancer.
In their study, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that doctors generally use something called tumor mutation burden (TMB) to gauge a tumor's response to immunotherapy. This is the total number of changes in a tumor's genetic makeup. They discovered that, to get more accurate results, they needed to focus on a specific subset of mutations they called "persistent mutations."
These persistent mutations are always present in cancer cells, making tumors more visible to the immune system. This allows for a better response to immunotherapy and, in turn, better outcomes. The researchers believe that these findings will be a game-changer for cancer patients and the world of medical oncology.
In Medical News Today, Dr. Kim Margolin, a medical oncologist, expressed excitement about the study, calling it refreshing and incredibly important. She believes that it's only a matter of time before doctors will be able to use new high-throughput, next-generation sequencing techniques to study patients' mutational spectrum and accurately select them for immunotherapy.
In the future, it may even be possible to use these techniques to categorize patients by their likelihood of response to immunotherapy or their likelihood of benefit from other treatments. The advancements in immunotherapy research are providing hope for millions of cancer patients worldwide. Stay tuned for more updates on this rapidly evolving field!
Enrichment Insights: Studies have shown that a specific subset of mutations in cancer tumors that indicate responsiveness to immunotherapy primarily involves defects or alterations increasing tumor mutational burden and neoantigen generation, making tumors more recognizable by the immune system. Key examples include mutations causing defects in DNA repair mechanisms, genomic subclonal mutations associated with tumor progression, mutations in RNA splicing factors, and mutations that generate neoantigens continuously. These mutations make tumors more visible to the immune system, enhancing the effectiveness of immunotherapy.
- The discovery of specific persistent mutations in cancer tumors by Johns Hopkins researchers could revolutionize the field of medical oncology, enabling doctors to more accurately choose patients for immunotherapy and predict treatment outcomes.
- The advancements in immunotherapy research are currently focusing on using immunotherapy for various types of cancer, such as breast, melanoma, leukemia, non-small cell lung cancer, and even promising possibilities for prostate, brain, and ovarian cancer.
- In the future, doctors may utilize new high-throughput, next-generation sequencing techniques to study patients' mutational spectrum, allowing for accurate selection of patients based on their likelihood of response to immunotherapy or benefit from other treatments, contributing to hope for millions of cancer patients worldwide.
