BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Techniques

Biomarkers

February 28, 2018 6:15 PM UTC

Detection of a panel of circulating tumor cell (CTC)-derived RNA transcripts in blood could help predict survival and disease progression in metastatic melanoma patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors. The method scores blood samples from patients based on a signature of 19 transcripts -- including melan-A (MLANA; MART1), SRY-box containing gene 10 (SOX10), tyrosinase related protein 1 (TYRP1) and melanoma-associated chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (MCSP; CSPG4) -- that are expressed at high levels in melanoma CTCs but below limits of detection in normal blood cells. In 49 metastatic melanoma patients receiving Keytruda pembrolizumab or Yervoy ipilimumab, patients whose transcript-based scores decreased between baseline and 6-7 weeks of treatment had higher progression-free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) than patients whose scores increased during the same treatment period. In the same patient cohort, disease progression occurred in 15% of patients whose scores decreased between baseline and 6-7 weeks and in 64% of patients whose scores increased during the 6-7-week treatment period. Next steps could include validating the finding in larger patient cohorts receiving other checkpoint inhibitors.

Merck & Co. Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and partners market the anti-PD-1 mAb Keytruda for bladder cancer, head and neck cancer, lymphoma, melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), gastric cancer and solid tumors...