On August 23, 2022 GeneCentric Therapeutics, a company making precision medicine more precise through RNA-based diagnostics, reported its new publication in Cancer Research Communications that compares the immunogenomic response profiles to anti-PD-(L)1 or IL-2 therapy and the development of a novel response classifier to IL-2 treatment1 (Press release, GeneCentric Therapeutics, AUG 23, 2022, View Source [SID1234618577]). Cancer Research Communications is an open access peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper). The study was conducted as a collaboration between Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute, Sanofi, and GeneCentric and evaluated real-world data from patients diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who were treated with immune-oncology agents. Results suggest that common and distinct immune-related response markers for IL-2 and anti-PD-(L)1 therapy may help guide their use, either alone or in combination.
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"It is exciting to share the initial findings from this important collaboration where we attempted to identify the immunogenomic differences between IL-2 and anti-PD-1 responders in renal cell carcinoma," said Dr. Asim Amin, medical oncologist, Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute, and study co-principal investigator. "Using RNA expression analysis, we were able to identify key characteristics that are unique to each treatment modality, as well as those that are shared between the two. With this work we were able to develop a novel IL-2 response signature that may have prognostic potential."
A primary focus of the study was to obtain a deeper understanding of the tumor microenvironment similarities and/or differences that may lead to IL-2 or anti-PD-(L)1 therapy response. Retrospective tumor samples and corresponding clinical response data were collected from patients with a primary diagnosis of RCC who were treated with high-dose IL-2 (HD-IL-2; aldesleukin) and compared to existing data from a similar cohort of RCC patients treated with the anti-PD-1 nivolumab2. Tumor samples from HD-IL-2 treated patients underwent RNA sequencing (RNAseq) prior to immunogenomic analysis. As a result, a novel RNA-based IL-2 treatment response signature was discovered that could ultimately assist in further developing diagnostics for next-generation IL-2 agents, several of which are in clinical development.
About Renal Cell Carcinoma
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney and renal pelvis cancer in adults. In the United States, it is estimated that there will be approximately 79,000 new cases of kidney and renal pelvis cancer in 2022 and almost 14,000 deaths. Kidney and renal pelvis cancer, which includes RCC, is considered the 8th most common type of cancer. Standard treatment options for RCC are surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy.