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IMMUNOTHERAPY

Prospective insights on the use of bTMB

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 19, page 360 (2022)Cite this article

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Tumour mutational burden (TMB) has utility in predicting immune-checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) response across cancer types, and retrospective studies suggest the potential value of minimally invasive TMB assessment via liquid biopsy of plasma circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Now, prospective data from the B-F1RST trial provide new insights on blood TMB (bTMB) as a predictive biomarker for ICI therapy in the setting of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

B-F1RST is a single-arm phase II trial in which 152 patients received atezolizumab monotherapy for previously untreated stage IIIB–IVB NSCLC. The study had a primary biomarker end point of progression-free survival (PFS) in the subgroup of patients with a bTMB of ≥16 according to a hybridization capture-based assay encompassing 1.1 Mb of the genome (equivalent to 14.5 mutations per Mb). This threshold predicted PFS and also overall survival (OS) benefit from atezolizumab in retrospective analyses of the POPLAR, OAK and IMPower110 trials in patients with NSCLC.

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  1. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology http://www.nature.com/nrclinonc

    David Killock

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  1. David Killock
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Correspondence to David Killock.

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Killock, D. Prospective insights on the use of bTMB. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 19, 360 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-022-00640-2

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