Influence of tumor mutational burden, inflammatory gene expression profile, and PD-L1 expression on response to pembrolizumab in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To characterize genomic determinants of response to pembrolizumab in recurrent/metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in the KEYNOTE-012 study.

Methods

Associations between biomarkers (tumor mutational burden (TMB), neoantigen load (NL), 18-gene T-cell-inflamed gene expression profile (Tcell_infGEP), and PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS)) and clinical outcomes with pembrolizumab were assessed in patients with R/M HNSCC (n=192). Tumor human papillomavirus (HPV) status was also evaluated with the use of p16 immunohistochemistry and whole exome sequencing (WES; HPV⁺, mapping >20 HPV reads) in pretreatment tumor samples (n=106).

Results

TMB, clonality-weighted TMB, and Tcell_infGEP were significantly asso

SUBMITTER: Haddad RI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8883256 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature