Cited by 4,071Cancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersCancer Genomics and DiagnosticsImmunotherapy and Immune Responses

Tumor mutational load predicts survival after immunotherapy across multiple cancer types

Open access
Samstein, Robert M., Lee, Chung-Han, Shoushtari, Alexander N., Hellmann, Matthew D., Shen, Ronglai, Janjigian, Yelena Y., Barron, David A., Zehir, Ahmet +49 more·2019·Nature Genetics

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatments benefit some patients with metastatic cancers, but predictive biomarkers are needed. Findings in selected cancer types suggest that tumor mutational burden (TMB) may predict clinical response to ICI. To examine this association more broadly, we analyzed the clinical and genomic data of 1,662 advanced cancer patients treated with ICI, and 5,371 non-ICI-treated patients, whose tumors underwent targeted next-generation sequencing (MSK-IMPACT). Among all patients, higher somatic TMB (highest 20% in each histology) was associated with better overall survival. For most cancer histologies, an association between higher TMB and improved survival was observed. The TMB cutpoints associated with improved survival varied markedly between cancer types. These data indicate that TMB is associated with improved survival in patients receiving ICI across a wide variety of cancer types, but that there may not be one universal definition of high TMB.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41588-018-0312-8

Cites

34 of 34 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In some tumour types, tumour mutational burden or neoantigen number correlates with responsiveness to immune-checkpoint inhibitors.

    “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 [68]

    The Abstract (page not specified in our copy) reports that higher TMB was associated with better survival among patients treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors across many cancer types. The paper proposes that higher TMB may mean more tumour neoantigens, but it does not report a direct correlation between neoantigen number and treatment response. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Samstein, R. M., Lee, C.-H., Shoushtari, A. N., Hellmann, M. D., Shen, R., Janjigian, Y. Y., Barron, D. A., Zehir, A., Jordan, E. J., Omuro, A., Kaley, T. J., Kendall, S. M., Motzer, R. J., Hakimi, A. A., Voss, M. H., Russo, P., Rosenberg, J., Iyer, G., Bochner, B. H., Bajorin, D. F., Al-Ahmadie, H. A., Chaft, J. E., Rudin, C. M., Riely, G. J., Baxi, S., Ho, A. L., Wong, R. J., Pfister, D. G., Wolchok, J. D., Barker, C. A., Gutin, P. H., Brennan, C. W., Tabar, V., Mellinghoff, I. K., DeAngelis, L. M., Ariyan, C. E., Lee, N., Tap, W. D., Gounder, M. M., D’Angelo, S. P., Saltz, L., Stadler, Z. K., Scher, H. I., Baselga, J., Razavi, P., Klebanoff, C. A., Yaeger, R., Segal, N. H., Ku, G. Y., DeMatteo, R. P., Ladanyi, M., Rizvi, N. A., Berger, M. F., Riaz, N., Solit, D. B., Chan, T. A., & Morris, L. G. T.
Affiliations
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
  • Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
  • Solit, David B.
  • Chan, Timothy A.
  • Morris, Luc G. T.
Venue
Nature Genetics
Published
2019-01-14
Volume
51
Issue
2
Pages
202-206
ISSN
  • 1061-4036 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1718
OpenAlex
W2909679049
Cited by
4,071
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 250 · 2025: 382 · 2024: 590 · 2023: 664 · 2022: 760 · 2021: 684 · 2020: 518 · 2019: 217 · 2017: 1 · 2012: 1
FWCI
231.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Genetics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Cancer Institute (P50CA221745, R01CA205426, R35CA232097, P30CA008748)
  • National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R01DE027738, K08DE024774)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
Keywords
tumor mutational burden, immune checkpoint inhibitors, immunotherapy response, overall survival, predictive biomarkers, metastatic cancer, somatic mutations, tumor histology, targeted next-generation sequencing
MeSH terms
Antineoplastic Agents, Humans, Immunotherapy, Mutation, Neoplasms, Tumor Burden, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review