Report of Canonical BCR-ABL1 Fusion in Glioblastoma

Considering molecular alterations as pan-cancer tissue-agnostic targets

Owing to high response rates, the Food and Drug Administration has approved both gene- and immune-targeted drugs for tumor-agnostic, genomic biomarker-based indications, for lethal solid and blood cancers. We posit that current data support tissue-agnostic activity as a paradigm, rather than an exception to the rule.

The coming decade in precision oncology: six riddles

High-throughput methods to investigate tumour omic landscapes have quickly catapulted cancer specialists into the precision oncology era. The singular lesson of precision oncology might be that, for it to be precise, treatment must be personalized, as each cancer's complex molecular and immune landscape differs from patient to patient. Transformative therapies include those that are targeted at the sequelae of molecular abnormalities or at immune mechanisms, and, increasingly, pathways previously thought to be undruggable have become druggable. Critical to applying precision medicine is the concept that the right combination of drugs must be chosen for each patient and used at the right stage of the disease. Multiple puzzles remain that complicate therapy choice, including evidence that deleterious mutations are common in normal tissues and non-malignant conditions. The host's role is also likely to be key in determining treatment response, especially for immunotherapy. Indeed, maximizing the impact of immunotherapy will require omic analyses to match the right immune-targeted drugs to the individualized patient and tumour setting. In this Perspective, we discuss six key riddles that must be solved to optimize the application of precision oncology to otherwise lethal malignancies.

Tumor Mutation Burden, Expressed Neoantigens and the Immune Microenvironment in Diffuse Gliomas

BACKGROUND

A consistent correlation between tumor mutation burden (TMB) and tumor immune microenvironment has not been observed in gliomas as in other cancers.

METHODS

Driver germline and somatic mutations, TMB, neoantigen, and immune cell signatures were analyzed using whole exome sequencing (WES) and transcriptome sequencing of tumor and WES of matched germline DNA in a cohort of 66 glioma samples (44 IDH-mutant and 22 IDH-wildtype).

RESULTS

Fourteen samples revealed a hypermutator phenotype (HMP). Eight pathogenic (P) or likely pathogenic (LP) germline variants were detected in 9 (19%) patients. Six of these 8 genes were DNA damage repair genes. P/LP germline variants were found in 22% of IDH-mutant gliomas and 12.5% of IDH-wildtype gliomas (p = 0.7). TMB was correlated with expressed neoantigen but showed an inverse correlation with immune score (R = -0.46, p = 0.03) in IDH-wildtype tumors and no correlation in IDH-mutant tumors. The Antigen Processing and Presentation (APP) score correlated with immune score and was surprisingly higher in NHMP versus HMP samples in IDH-wildtype gliomas, but higher in HMP versus NHMP in IDH-mutant gliomas.

CONCLUSION

TMB was inversely correlated with immune score in IDH-wildtype gliomas and showed no correlation in IDH-mutant tumors. APP was correlated with immune score and may be further investigated as a biomarker for response to immunotherapy in gliomas. Studies of germline variants in a larger glioma cohort are warranted.