Quantifying potential confounders of panel-based tumor mutational burden (TMB) measurement

Tumor mutational burden (TMB) has shown consistent predictive ability for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) across several cancer types [1]. Meanwhile, accumulating data also suggest a longer overall survival for TMB-high cases among non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a PD-1 blocker as their first or subsequent treatment line [2,3], while the association of TMB with survival in case of ICI-chemotherapy combinations, ICI doublets, or other cancers remains under investigation. TMB is most often defined as the total number of somatic missense mutations in the tumor exome, which reflects the degree of neoantigenicity as a prerequisite of cancer immunity.

Source: Lung Cancer - January 31, 2020 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Jan Budczies, Daniel Kazdal, Michael Allg äuer, Petros Christopoulos, Eugen Rempel, Nicole Pfarr, Wilko Weichert, Stefan Fröhling, Michael Thomas, Solange Peters, Volker Endris, Peter Schirmacher, Albrecht Stenzinger Source Type: research