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Predictors of Response to Cancer Immunotherapy
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Predictors of Response to Cancer Immunotherapy

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2025 | Viewed by 2112

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Stephanie J. Tuminello

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Thoracic Surgery and Institute for Translational Epidemiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Interests: immunotherapy; genetics; personalized medicine; cancer epidemiology; molecular epidemiology; translational research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Emanuela Taioli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Translational Epidemiology and Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Interests: biostatistics; cancer; epidemiology; healthcare; lung; obesity; personalized medicine; public health; thyroid; translational research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment and is now the mainstay for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, melanoma, and other cancers. Yet, while many patients experience dramatic and durable treatment response, others do not benefit from immunotherapy, or they are plagued by extreme, treatment-limiting side effects. Research is ongoing to identify which personal characteristics, biomarkers, and clinical or histological features may explain heterogeneity in immunotherapy effectiveness. Patient’s sex, race, comorbidity, and concurrent medication, as well as histology, specific tumor mutational profile, and tumor immune microenvironment, likely modulate immunotherapy response. For instance, specific gene-expression signatures in immune cells have been demonstrated to predict immunotherapy efficacy. Moreover, research suggests that these factors may behave interactively, either synergistically or antagonistically, to impact immune system response. The availability of reliable predictors of immunotherapy efficacy would have a significant clinical benefit, guiding clinician decision making and improving patient outcomes. Furthermore, profiling-based precision medicine could enable individualized immunotherapy treatment of cancer patients in the future.

This Special Issue is dedicated to understanding predictors, alone or in combination, of immunotherapy efficacy. We warmly welcome submissions, including original papers and reviews, on this critically important topic.

Dr. Stephanie J. Tuminello
Prof. Dr. Emanuela Taioli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • immunotherapy
  • immune checkpoint inhibitors
  • cancer
  • cancer therapy
  • precision medicine
  • survival outcomes

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 687 KiB  
Article
Incongruence Between Prerequisite Molecular Testing and Treatment with Personalized Therapies for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare Study
by Wiley M. Turner, Stephanie Tuminello, Matthew Untalan, Raja Flores and Emanuela Taioli
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(10), 4581; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26104581 - 10 May 2025
Viewed by 243
Abstract
Personalized medicine, including targeted and immunotherapy, has substantially changed the landscape of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). About 30% of NSCLC tumors have targetable mutations, like EGFR, and 28% of tumors will have a PD-L1 score or tumor mutation burden high enough to [...] Read more.
Personalized medicine, including targeted and immunotherapy, has substantially changed the landscape of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). About 30% of NSCLC tumors have targetable mutations, like EGFR, and 28% of tumors will have a PD-L1 score or tumor mutation burden high enough to warrant immunotherapy; a molecular test prior to therapy assesses eligibility. However, the congruence between testing and treatment, and the effect of treatment without testing on outcomes, is understudied. We extracted a cohort of NSCLC patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare-linked data. The primary outcome was survival. Demographic and clinical characteristics of those receiving vs. not receiving a molecular test were compared, and a Kaplan–Meier curve along with a multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression assessed the association of survival with the receipt of molecular diagnostic testing, adjusting for sex, race, age, income tract, metro/urban/rural region, histology, and stage. There were 911 NSCLC patients treated with personalized therapy, of which 513 (56.3%) had received prior molecular testing. Black patients were less likely than White patients to receive testing (36.4% vs. 59.9%; p < 0.001). Testing was significantly more frequent in patients with fewer comorbidities (p < 0.001), adenocarcinoma (p = 0.004), tumors in the lower lobe (p = 0.037), or diagnosed at a later stage (p = 0.026). Only 39.9% of patients receiving EGFR inhibitors were initially tested for an EGFR mutation. Among NSCLC patients treated with personalized therapy, untested patients were at increased mortality risk compared to tested patients (median survival 8.22 vs. 12.79 months, p = 0.024). After adjustment, treated patients not tested beforehand had a significantly higher mortality risk (HRadj: 1.20; 95% CI: 1.04–1.40). Substantial incongruence between receipt of molecular testing and personalized therapies exists according to nationwide claims data, with only about half of treated patients having had an appropriate molecular diagnostic workup. This could explain, in part, the higher mortality among treated patients who did not undergo testing. Before expanding personalized therapies, further addressing these issues through standardized, reflexive testing protocols and improved clinician education is critical to optimizing the integration of molecular diagnostics into treatment planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predictors of Response to Cancer Immunotherapy)
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23 pages, 9313 KiB  
Article
Novel Oncogenic Value of C10orf90 in Colon Cancer Identified as a Clinical Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker
by Chuangdong Ruan, Yuqin Zhang, Daoyang Chen, Mengyi Zhu, Penghui Yang, Rongxin Zhang and Yan Li
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(19), 10496; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms251910496 - 29 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1304
Abstract
C10orf90, a tumor suppressor, can inhibit the occurrence and development of tumors. Therefore, we investigated the gene function of C10orf90 in various tumors using multiple pan-cancer datasets. Pan-cancer analysis results reveal that the expression levels of C10orf90 vary across different tumors and hold [...] Read more.
C10orf90, a tumor suppressor, can inhibit the occurrence and development of tumors. Therefore, we investigated the gene function of C10orf90 in various tumors using multiple pan-cancer datasets. Pan-cancer analysis results reveal that the expression levels of C10orf90 vary across different tumors and hold significant value in the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of patients with various tumors. In some cancers, the expression level of C10orf90 is correlated with CNV, DNA methylation, immune subtypes, immune cell infiltration, and drug sensitivity in the tumors. In particular, in COAD, the C10orf90 gene is implicated in multiple processes associated with COAD. Cell experiments demonstrate that C10orf90 suppresses the proliferation and migration of colon cancer cells while promoting apoptosis. In summary, C10orf90 plays a role in the onset and progression of various cancers and could potentially serve as an effective diagnostic and prognostic marker for cancer patients. Notably, in COAD, C10orf90 inhibits the proliferation and migration of colon cancer cells, induces apoptosis, and is linked to the advancement of colon cancer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predictors of Response to Cancer Immunotherapy)
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