The impact of mutational clonality in predicting the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced urothelial cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have revolutionized cancer treatment and can result in complete remissions even at advanced stages of the disease. However, only a small fraction of patients respond to the treatment. To better understand which factors drive clinical benefit, we have generated whol...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Boll, Lilian Marie, Perera Bel, Júlia, Rodriguez-Vida, Alejo, Arpí Llucià, Oriol, Rovira, Ana, Juanpere, Nuria, Vázquez Montes de Oca, Sergio, Hernández Llodrà, Silvia, Lloreta, Josep, 1958-, Albà Soler, Mar, Bellmunt Molins, Joaquim, 1959-
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/59600
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59600
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42495-2
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Cancer genomics
Cancer immunotherapy
Immunotherapy
Urological cancer
Descripción
Sumario:Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have revolutionized cancer treatment and can result in complete remissions even at advanced stages of the disease. However, only a small fraction of patients respond to the treatment. To better understand which factors drive clinical benefit, we have generated whole exome and RNA sequencing data from 27 advanced urothelial carcinoma patients treated with anti-PD-(L)1 monoclonal antibodies. We assessed the influence on the response of non-synonymous mutations (tumor mutational burden or TMB), clonal and subclonal mutations, neoantigen load and various gene expression markers. We found that although TMB is significantly associated with response, this effect can be mostly explained by clonal mutations, present in all cancer cells. This trend was validated in an additional cohort. Additionally, we found that responders with few clonal mutations had abnormally high levels of T and B cell immune markers, suggesting that a high immune cell infiltration signature could be a better predictive biomarker for this subset of patients. Our results support the idea that highly clonal cancers are more likely to respond to ICI and suggest that non-additive effects of different signatures should be considered for predictive models.