UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology APRIL 2022 - Flipbook - Page 20
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
PREDICTING SIDE EFFECTS
These findings represent an important step toward personalizing
checkpoint therapy, the use of which is growing rapidly
I
nvestigators from UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a
germline biomarker signature that successfully predicts which patients will suffer
serious side effects that occur in up to 3 in 10 patients on anti-PD1/PDL1 therapy, a
promising new approach to treating cancer.
Checkpoint inhibitors that enhance the immune system against PD-1 and PD-L1 show
great promise, having substantially improved the prognosis for patients with several
advanced cancers, including melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung
cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, and head and neck cancer.
As promising as they are, these therapies are also associated with a unique set of
side effects, called immune-related adverse events (irAEs), believed to be the result
of an immune system overstimulated by the therapy. While these side effects are
generally treatable, they can in rare cases be very serious, even fatal. In addition,
there’s currently no way to predict which patients will develop irAEs before starting
treatment, requiring clinicians to watch and wait after treatment begins. Notably, the
toxicity from checkpoint therapy does not appear to be associated with a patient’s
cancer or their response to the treatment, supporting the idea that it is a patientspecific reaction.
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