Thermo Fisher flags data for tumor mutation test

2019 09 06 17 09 1120 Cancer Cell Yellow 400

Thermo Fisher Scientific will showcase new research involving its Oncomine tumor mutation load assay and how it relates to cancer immunotherapy response on September 9 at the European Congress of Pathology (ECP) in Nice, France.

Tumor mutational burden refers to the number of mutations in cancer cells. It has been emerging as a biomarker for response to checkpoint immunotherapies, including drugs targeting programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), though its role is still not well understood.

In a study of 76 patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, those who responded the best had high tumor mutational burden and also tested positive for PD-L1, according to Dr. Philip Jermann, head of molecular assay development at University Hospital Basel's Institute of Medical Genetics and Pathology, and colleagues. They reported the results in the Journal of Pathology on August 30; the study was partially funded by a research grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Jermann is slated to present data from the study on September 9 at a satellite symposium sponsored by Thermo Fisher at ECP. The company said this is one of the first studies evaluating its tumor mutational burden assay, which can produce results in the same time frame as PD-L1 tests, so the data are ready in parallel.

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