Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose cancer cells have low levels of aneuploidy – an abnormal number of chromosomes – tend to respond better to immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs than patients with higher levels, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers will report at the virtual AACR Annual Meeting 2021.
In analysing data from hundreds of patients with NSCLC who were treated with these drugs, the researchers found that those whose cancer receded tended to have less aneuploidy in their tumour cells than those whose disease remained stable or worsened. These findings suggest that aneuploidy testing can have an important role in determining which treatment is most likely to benefit patients, according to the researchers.
“Aneuploidy is a widespread feature of non-small cell lung cancer and is associated with altered immune signalling; however, the functional significance of cancer aneuploidy remains unclear,” said João Alessi, MD, of Dana-Farber who will be presenting the study findings. “Despite the availability of biomarkers for predicting which patients are most likely to respond to checkpoint-inhibiting drugs, less than 50 percent do respond, highlighting the need for new and better markers.”
