Immunotherapy and next-generation sequencing guided therapy for precision oncology: what have we learnt and what does the future hold?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The rapid development of clinical next-generation sequencing (NGS) and the contemporaneous availability of molecular targeted therapies ignited and fueled the field of precision oncology. More recently, there has been an explosion of immunotherapeutic agents, specifically the checkpoint inhibitors: PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 antibodies. These new classes of agents have produced durable responses in a variety of tumor subtypes.

Areas covered: In this review, the authors explore the role of NGS in identifying targets for molecular therapy. The authors also expand on the future uses of NGS in oncology including: prediction of checkpoint inhibitor response, quantification of tumor mutational burden, neoantigen calling using bioinformatics tools, and finally the personalization of cell transfer technologies and cancer vaccines.

Expert commentary: The near future will witness an increased understanding of the immune system and genomics in cancer. High throughput sequencing technology will expand in parallel with an ever-expanding array of novel therapies. Improved computational power coupled with bioinformatics algorithms will combine the fields of genomics and immunology. The emerging fields that stand to benefit from rapid translation of NGS technology include cancer vaccines and adoptive cell therapy, which will further refine precision oncology.

KEYWORDS:

• Immunotherapy
• immuno-oncology
• targeted therapy
• precision oncology
• personalized medicine
• next generation sequencing

Declaration of interest

V Subbiah receives research funding for clinical trials from Novartis, Bayer, GSK, Nanocarrier, Vegenics, Northwest Biotherapeutics, Berghealth, Incyte, Fujifilm, Pharmamar, D3, Pfizer, Multivir, Amgen, Abbvie, Bluprint medicines, LOXO and Roche/Genentech. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was supported by the National Institutes of Health Cancer Center Support Grant CA016672.