High tumor mutation burden only predicts when immunotherapy will work in certain cancers

A new study led by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has shed some light on the matter of predicting when immunotherapies will work in cancer.

The study shows that a high rate of genetic mutations within a tumor, known as high tumor mutation burden (TMB), is only useful for predicting clinical responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors in a subset of cancer types.

"Our results do not support applying high TMB status as a universal biomarker for immunotherapy response"