Researchers develop new approach to predict immunotherapy response in breast cancer patients

Immunotherapy is used to try to boost the body's own immune system to attack cancer cells. However, only some patients respond to treatment, explains lead study author Theinmozhi Arulraj, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins: "It's really important that we identify those patients for whom it will work, because the toxicity of these treatments is high."

To tease this out, studies have tested whether the presence or absence of certain cells, or the expression of various molecules in the tumor, can indicate if a particular patient will respond to immunotherapy. Such molecules are called predictive biomarkers and are useful in selecting the right treatment for patients, explains senior study author Aleksander Popel, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical engineering and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Collectively, these new findings shed light on how to better select patients with metastatic breast cancer for immunotherapy. The researchers say these findings are expected to help design future clinical studies, and this method could be replicated in other cancer types.

The current work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant R01CA138264). Part of the work was carried out at the Advanced Research Computing at Hopkins core facility, which is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant OAC1920103.

Popel is a consultant to Incyte and to J&J/Janssen, and is a co-founder and consultant to AsclepiX Therapeutics. He also receives research funding from Merck. The terms of these arrangements are being managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.

Source:

Johns Hopkins Medicine