Mutanome directed cancer immunotherapy

2015

Somatic mutations are important drivers of cancer development. Accumulating evidence suggests that a significant subset of mutations result in neo-epitopes recognized by autologous T cells and thus may constitute the Achilles' heel of tumor cells. T cells directed against mutations have been shown to have a key role in clinical efficacy of potent cancer immunotherapy modalities, such as adoptive transfer of autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Whereas these findings strengthen the idea of a prominent role of neo-epitopes in tumor rejection, the systematic therapeutic exploitation of mutations was hampered until recently by the uniqueness of the reperto…