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The Challenges of Tumor Mutational Burden as an Immunotherapy Biomarker
Open accessAbstract
Tumor mutational burden (TMB) reflects cancer mutation quantity. Mutations are processed to neo-antigens and presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins to T cells. To evade immune eradication, cancers exploit checkpoints that dampen T cell reactivity. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have transformed cancer treatment by enabling T cell reactivation; however, response biomarkers are required, as most patients do not benefit. Higher TMB results in more neo-antigens, increasing chances for T cell recognition, and clinically correlates with better ICI outcomes. Nevertheless, TMB is an imperfect response biomarker. A composite predictor that also includes critical variables, such as MHC and T cell receptor repertoire, is needed.
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“In certain tumour types, the number of neoantigens in a tumour (or tumour mutational burden (TMB)) is correlated with responsiveness to ICIs67,68.”
From Adjuvant and neoadjuvant immunotherapies in hepatocellular carcinoma (2024) · cites this paper as [67]
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“Finally, tumor mutation burden (TMB) refers to the sum of gene mutations in tumor cells [30].”
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“variable responses to ICI together with the lack of a standardized approach to determine TMB pose as hindrances to the implementation of TMB as a bone fide tumor agnostic predictive biomarker (reviewed extensively in [62,63].”
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“TMB corresponds to the number of somatic non-synonymous mutations per coding area of the tumoral DNA and is hypothesized to correlate with the production of a higher amount of neoantigens inducing a stronger immune response which can be exploited by ICIs [26].”
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“50 53 Although TMB alone is not sufficient to predict outcome, higher TMB scores have been associated with higher ICI efficacy in melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).”
BackgroundIn, G. K., Ribeiro, J. R., Yin, J., Xiu, J., Bustos, M. A., Ito, F., Chow, F. E., Zada, G., Hwang, L., Salama, A. K. S., et al. (2023) · npj Precision Oncology · doi:10.1038/s41698-023-00471-z · Cited by 25
“…is related to neoantigen load and correlates with improved outcomes in several cancer types, but the absolute relationship between TMB and immunogenicity or response to immunotherapy may also depend upon the tumor type or the speci fi c genomic landscape and immune repertoire of each patient 47 .”
Emerging Targets for Systemic Treatment of Gastric Cancer: HER2 and Beyond
Kim, I.-H. (2023) · Journal of the Korean Gastric Cancer Association · doi:10.5230/jgc.2024.24.e6 · Cited by 27
“TMB was initially identified through whole-exome sequencing, but because of its technical complexity and high cost, comprehensive gene panels using NGS have been used as substitutes in clinical settings [96].”
BackgroundMethodLiu, B., Zhai, J., Wang, W.-Y., Liu, T., Liu, C., Zhu, X., Wang, Q., Tian, W., & Zhang, F. (2022) · Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences · doi:10.3389/fmolb.2022.872932 · Cited by 24
A prognostic model for oral squamous cell carcinoma using 7 genes related to tumor mutational burden
Wu, F., Du, Y., Hou, X., & Cheng, W. (2022) · BMC Oral Health · doi:10.1186/s12903-022-02193-3 · Cited by 23
“And TMB levels are emerging as a novel prognostic biomarker for the response to immunotherapy in oncology clinic [21, 26, 27].”
BackgroundZhao, Y., Xie, Z., Deng, Y., Huang, A., He, Y., Wen, B., Liao, X., Chang, R., Zhang, G., Zhu, L., et al. (2022) · Chemical Engineering Journal · doi:10.1016/j.cej.2022.138139 · Cited by 24
Song, J., Ruze, R., Chen, Y., Xu, R., Yin, X., Wang, C., Xu, Q., & Zhao, Y. (2022) · BMC Cancer · doi:10.1186/s12885-022-09983-6 · Cited by 23
“Thus, a higher TMB results in more tumor neoantigens, which increases chances for immunotherapy and is clinically associated with better ICB responses [46].”
BackgroundChen, Z., Zhao, Y., Tian, Y., Cao, R., & Shang, D. (2023) · Biomolecules · doi:10.3390/biom13020282 · Cited by 22
Wang, X., Bai, Y., Zhang, F., Li, D., Chen, K., Wu, R., Tang, Y., Wei, X., & Han, P. (2023) · Frontiers in Immunology · doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.955949 · Cited by 27
“TMB can reflect the quantity of mutations in tumors and generate immunogenic neoantigens, which improves the possibility of T cell recognition, and clinically relates to better immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) response (60).”
BackgroundXu, S., Zhu, Q., Wu, L., Wang, Y., Wang, J., Zhu, L., Zheng, S., Hang, J., & Hang, J. (2023) · International Immunopharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110642 · Cited by 22
Cancer vaccines: from an immunology perspective
Makker, S., Galley, C., & Bennett, C. L. (2023) · Immunotherapy Advances · doi:10.1093/immadv/ltad030 · Cited by 27
“It is likely that only some non-synonymous mutations will lead to the generation of novel immunogenic peptides, and it may not be the burden of neo-antigens within a tumour, but the immunogenicity of the neo-antigen, which is vital in generating a strong anti-tumour immune response [76, 78].”
BackgroundFuningana, I.-G., Reinius, M. A. V., Petrillo, A., Ang, J. E., & Brenton, J. D. (2021) · Seminars in Cancer Biology · doi:10.1016/j.semcancer.2021.02.008 · Cited by 23
Saeed, O. A. M., Mann, S. A., Luchini, C., Huang, K., Zhang, S., Sen, J. D., Piredda, M. L., Wang, M., Baldridge, L. A., Sperling, R. M., et al. (2021) · Human Pathology · doi:10.1016/j.humpath.2021.05.009 · Cited by 24
Kato, S., Li, B., Adashek, J. J., Cha, S. W., Bianchi-Frias, D., Qian, D., Kim, L., so, T. W., Mitchell, M., Kamei, N., et al. (2022) · OncoImmunology · doi:10.1080/2162402x.2022.2052410 · Cited by 22
Self-citationQian, Y., Feng, D., Wang, J., Wei, W., Wei, Q., Han, P., & Yang, L. (2023) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-023-36125-0 · Cited by 24
Miyashita, H., Kurzrock, R., Bevins, N., Thangathurai, K., Lee, S., Pabla, S., Nesline, M., Glenn, S. T., Conroy, J. M., DePietro, P., et al. (2023) · npj Genomic Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41525-023-00359-8 · Cited by 24
Self-citationLi, Z.-C., Wang, J., Liu, H.-B., Zheng, Y.-M., Huang, J.-H., Cai, J., Zhang, L., Liu, X., Du, L., Yang, X.-T., et al. (2024) · Cell Reports · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113877 · Cited by 24
Applications of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma B Cells
Isavand, P., Aghamiri, S. S., & Amin, R. (2024) · Biomedicines · doi:10.3390/biomedicines12081753 · Cited by 24
“The tumor mutational burden (TMB) and the expression of the immune checkpoint PD-1 are primary biomarkers used to identify patients likely to respond to immunotherapy; however, their predictive power remains limited [80,81].”
BackgroundWen, Q., Qiu, L., Qiu, C., Che, K., Zeng, R., Wang, X., Cao, P., Xing, L., Yang, Z., & Yu, J. (2025) · Cancer Letters · doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2025.217881 · Cited by 24
Yang, Y., Jiang, L., Wang, S., Chen, H., Yi, M., Wu, Y., Li, Z., & Fang, X. (2022) · Translational Cancer Research · doi:10.21037/tcr-22-502 · Cited by 21
Bai, J., Zheng, A., Ha, Y., Xu, X., Yu, Y., Lu, Y., Zheng, S., Shen, Z., Luo, B., & Jie, W. (2022) · Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences · doi:10.3389/fmolb.2022.988777 · Cited by 22
“Tumor mutational burden (TMB), as a quantifiable biomarker, can be used to reflect the number of mutations contained in a tumor cell, which was visualized with R software packages “ggstatsplot” (Jardim et al., 2021).”
MethodXue, W., Dong, B., Wang, Y., Xie, Y., Xue, Q., Gong, Z., Zhu, C., & Niu, Z. (2022) · Experimental and Molecular Pathology · doi:10.1016/j.yexmp.2022.104832 · Cited by 22
Lin, Y., Zhang, Y., Tuo, Z., Gao, L., Ding, D., Bi, L., Yu, D., Lv, Z., Wang, J., & Chen, X. (2023) · BMC Cancer · doi:10.1186/s12885-023-10763-z · Cited by 22
“The TMB represents the number of somatic gene mutations existed in the cancer cells [28].”
BackgroundZou, D., Song, A., & Yong, W. (2023) · Frontiers in Oncology · doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1176574 · Cited by 22
“TMB testing is not widely accessible or covered by insurance, potentially limiting patients’ access to these diagnostic tests (31).”
BackgroundIntegrative analysis of cancer-associated fibroblast signature in gastric cancer
Zhao, Z., Mak, T. K., Shi, Y., Li, K., Huo, M., & Zhang, C. (2023) · Heliyon · doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19217 · Cited by 22
Gene expression and immune infiltration in melanoma patients with different mutation burden
Wang, L., Fu, C. S., Liu, R., Shi, L., Zhao, G., & Yan, Z. (2021) · BMC Cancer · doi:10.1186/s12885-021-08083-1 · Cited by 22
Microenvironmental regulation of tumour immunity and response to immunotherapy
Kockx, M. M., McCleland, M. L., & Koeppen, H. (2021) · The Journal of Pathology · doi:10.1002/path.5681 · Cited by 23
Ding, L., Dong, H., Zhou, T. R., Wang, Y. H., Yan, T., Li, J. C., Wang, Z. Y., Liang, C., & Liang, C. (2021) · Cancer Medicine · doi:10.1002/cam4.4190 · Cited by 21
Huang, Z., Li, B., Guo, Y. H., Wu, L., Kou, F., & Yang, L. (2021) · Frontiers in Immunology · doi:10.3389/fimmu.2021.723172 · Cited by 21
“However, there are limitations for using TMB to identify potential patients; the response rate in patients with tumors that have TMB-H (≥20 mutations/Mb) is only 45% (59, 60).”
BackgroundLai, G., Liu, H., Deng, J., Li, K., Zhang, C., Zhong, X., & Xie, B. (2023) · Cells · doi:10.3390/cells12050755 · Cited by 22
“A higher TMB could predict the efficacy of ICIs, primarily because high TMB released more neoantigens and increased the chance of being recognized by T cells [89].”
BackgroundFocusing on CD8+ T-cell phenotypes: improving solid tumor therapy
Yao, Z., Zeng, Y., Liu, C., Jin, H., Wang, H., Zhang, Y., Ding, C., Chen, G., & Wu, D. (2024) · Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research · doi:10.1186/s13046-024-03195-5 · Cited by 27
“…neoantigen mutation burden (TMB) of individuals is directly related to the reactivity of NeoTCR-T cells [51], the heterogeneity of TMB emphasizes the importance of increasing the stability, affinity, and persistent functional activity of adoptively transferred NeoTCR-T cells in enhancing ACT [52].”
BackgroundAi, X., Jia, B., He, Z., Zhang, J., Zhuo, M., Zhao, J., Wang, Z., Zhang, J., Fan, Z., Zhang, X., et al. (2024) · Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy · doi:10.1038/s41392-024-02060-3 · Cited by 21
Chung, S., Yeh, Y., Huang, C.-J., Chiang, N.-J., Hsu, D. S., Chan, M., Lu, M.-L., Hsu, T.-S., Hung, Y.-P., Yeh, C., et al. (2025) · Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer · doi:10.1136/jitc-2024-010173 · Cited by 21
The Prognostic Value of ctDNA and bTMB on Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Human Cancer
Wei, J., Feng, J., Weng, Y., Xu, Z., Jin, Y., Wang, P., Cui, X., Ruan, P., Luo, R., Li, N., et al. (2021) · Frontiers in Oncology · doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.706910 · Cited by 21
Targeting polymerase θ impairs tumorigenesis and enhances radiosensitivity in lung adenocarcinoma
Rao, X., Xing, B., Wu, Z., Bin, Y., Chen, Y., Xu, Y., Zhou, D., Zhou, X., Wu, C., Ye, W., et al. (2023) · Cancer Science · doi:10.1111/cas.15727 · Cited by 20
Wang, X., Jing, H., & Li, H. (2023) · Translational Lung Cancer Research · doi:10.21037/tlcr-22-500 · Cited by 20
“However, there is currently no consensus over the optimal cut-off of TMB for patient stratification, leading to limited further application in the clinic (54).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Jardim, D. L., Goodman, A., de Melo Gagliato, D., & Kurzrock, R.
- Affiliations
- Hospital Sírio-Libanês (BR)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kurzrock, Razelle
- Venue
- Cancer Cell
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-02
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 154-173
- ISSN
- 1535-6108 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7878292
- OpenAlex
- W3097803258
- Cited by
- 1,192
- References
- 151
- Citations by year
- 2026: 134 · 2025: 263 · 2024: 294 · 2023: 276 · 2022: 171 · 2021: 53
- FWCI
- 13.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 372 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Cancer Cell (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Astellas Pharma US
- National Cancer Institute (P30 CA023100)
- Janssen Pharmaceuticals
- AstraZeneca
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Genentech
- Roche
- EMD Serono
- Pfizer
- Meso Scale Diagnostics
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
- Keywords
- tumor mutational burden, immunotherapy biomarkers, immune checkpoint inhibitors, neoantigens, MHC class I antigen presentation, T cell receptor repertoire, cancer immunotherapy response prediction
- MeSH terms
- Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Humans, Immunotherapy, Major Histocompatibility Complex, Mutation, Neoplasms, T-Lymphocytes, Biomarkers, Tumor
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