UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology APRIL 2022 - Flipbook - Page 21
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
With a growing need to identify which patients are at risk for irAEs, investigators led by
Joanne B. Weidhaas, MD, PhD, MSM, of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and
vice chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, Director, Division of Molecular and Cellular
Oncology at UCLA Health, examined DNA signatures in 99 patients, looking for patterns that
would indicate if inherited DNA biomarkers would predict toxicity. In findings published
in Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, they report that they were able to identify a
biomarker panel that predicts toxicity with 80% accuracy.
“These findings represent an important step toward personalizing checkpoint therapy, the
use of which is growing rapidly,” said Dr. Weidhaas. “While we are still at the early stages of
understanding the mechanisms by which these germline mutations regulate immunity and
the systemic stress response, our repeated findings that these variant panels can predict
systemic toxic responses to cancer therapy are potentially paradigm-shifting.”
The authors of the study say applying these findings may improve clinicians’ ability to offer
truly personalized cancer therapy by enabling consideration of toxicity along with other data
that can predict patients’ response to treatment. “As the efficacy of cancer therapy improves,
resulting in higher and higher rates of long-term cancer control,” they write, “cure without
harm will only become an increasingly important endpoint.” ☐
Article: Weidhaas J, Marco N, Scheffler AW, et al. Germline biomarkers predicting toxicity to anti-PD1/PDL1
checkpoint therapy. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2021;0:e003625. doi:10.1136/ jitc-2021-003625
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