Circulating protein and antibody biomarker for personalized cancer immunotherapy

Immune checkpoint blockade therapies are revolutionizing standard cancer treatments. Immune checkpoint inhibitors likely function to enhance the tumor specific antigen response in order to achieve favorable clinical outcomes. Thus, continuous efforts to identify the common tumor-specific antigens are essential for the broad clinical application of these therapies. Several immunoproteomics approaches have been used in order to screen for this specificity. In a recent article from Jhaveri and colleagues published in the February issue of Cancer Immunology Research, antibody biomarkers were screened in pancreatic cancer patients who received allogeneic, granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor-secreting pancreatic cancer vaccine (GVAX) by using a serum antibody-based SILAC immunoprecipitation (SASI) approach. Using this assay, several new tumor antigens (MYPT1, PSMC5 and TRFR) were identified that were found to have significantly different expression in tumors compared with normal tissue. Moreover, patients with detectable antibodies showed improved disease-free survival after GVAX therapy. These targets need to be further validated to determine the full spectrum of tumor antigen immunogencity and their potential clinical application. In addition to antibodies, circulating protein, DNA and RNA in peripheral blood are under clinical investigation as liquid biopsies and have the potential to provide guidance for future personalized cancer immunotherapy.