While it will take more work to see this approach leveraged in the clinic, the researchers are excited about the possibilities this breakthrough represents.
“This is a huge step forward for personalized immune cancer therapy,” added Lippman.
Additional coauthors of the study include: Xin Zhao, and Maria Trifas, from New York University Langone Health; William N. William from UC San Diego and Oncoclínicas São Paulo; Bin Liu, PhD, Raymond J. Lim, and Yushen Du from UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Yu-Jui Ho, Francisco M. Barriga, and Scott W. Lowe from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
This study was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (grants K99 CA266939, R01DE026644, U01CA0290479, P01 CA106451, P50 CA097007, P30 CA023100, R37CA248631, and R01HG012590), the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (grants 5T32CA160001 and David Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Research Pilot Project), the Gerry Metastasis and Tumor Ecosystems Center (GMTEC) (Postdoctoral Fellowship and Classic Individual Funding), the Edward P. Evans Foundation (Young Investigator Award), the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program (grant T30DT0963), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Geoffrey Beene Chair for Cancer Biology, the Agilent Thought Leader Program, the UCLA Technology Development Group Innovation Fund, the NCI Early Detection Research Network (grant 1U2CCA271898), the Department of Veterans Affairs (grants 1I50CU000157), Cancer Research UK (grant C67321/ A29060), and Stand up to Cancer.
Disclosures: Scott Lowe receives consultant fees and holding equity in Blueprint Medicines, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Mirimus, PMV Pharmaceuticals, Faeth Therapeutics, Senescea Therapeutics and Constellation Pharmaceuticials. Steven Dubinett receives research funds from Janssen and Novartis, stock options and is on the advisory board of Lung Life AI, Inc. and Early Diagnostics, Inc. Teresa Davoli is a member of the SAB of io9 (now Acurion) and KaryoVerse therapeutics. Scott Lippman has served in an advisory capacity for, and received stock options from Sympto Health, Biological Dynamics; he is a cofounder of io9 LLC (now Acurion, Inc.); and is a co-inventor of IP related to genomic (9p) predictive biomarkers and precision immunotherapy: Title: Methods and Biomarkers in Cancer (inst) to Davoli and Lippman, PCT/U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 63/483,237; and Title: Artificial Intelligence Architecture for Predicting Cancer Biomarkers (inst) to Lippman and Alexandrov, U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 63/412,835, U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 63/412,835 Title: Genetically-Defined Immune-Checkpoint Inhibitor Resistance in Aggressive Precursors of HPV– Head and Neck Squamous Cancer. All other authors report no disclosures.