Photo Credit: Nemes Laszlo

The following is a summary of “Tumor and Blood B Cell Abundance Outperforms Established Immune Checkpoint Blockade Response Prediction Signatures in Head and Neck Cancer,” published in the November 2024 issue of Oncology by Chang et al.     

Immunotherapy has improved outcomes for some patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, low and variable response rates highlight the need for reliable biomarkers to guide immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) treatment decisions.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate biomarkers predictive of ICB response in patients with HNSCC.  

They analyzed a dataset of 1,232 patients across 11 clinical cohorts (including various disease subtypes and treatment types) to assess cell types, traditional biomarkers, and emerging predictors in blood and tumor tissues for predictive power (P<0.05).  

The results showed that tumor B cell infiltration was a strong predictor of both patient survival and ICB response, outperforming other biomarkers like tertiary lymphoid structure (TLS) and T cell-based signatures, B cell levels in blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) strongly correlated with tumor B cell levels and had high predictive value for ICB response (OR ≥ 7.8 in 2 independent cohorts).  

They concluded that measuring B cell abundance in PBMCs or tumor tissues was a reliable predictor of ICB response in HNSCC and can inform clinical decisions.  

Source: annalsofoncology.org/article/S0923-7534(24)04914-7/abstract