Tumor Mutational Burden and Mismatch Repair Deficiency Discordance as a Mechanism of Immunotherapy Resistance

Authors:
Agata A. Bielska Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;

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 MD, PhD
,
Walid K. Chatila Tri-Institutional Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College; and
Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology,

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Henry Walch Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology,

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Nikolaus Schultz Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology,
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,
Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, and

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Zsofia K. Stadler Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;

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Jinru Shia Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.

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Diane Reidy-Lagunes Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;

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Rona Yaeger Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;

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Volume/Issue:
Volume 19: Issue 2
Online Publication Date:
02 Feb 2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6004/jnccn.2020.7680
Restricted access

Lynch syndrome is a heritable cancer syndrome caused by a heterozygous germline mutation in DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes. MMR-deficient (dMMR) tumors are particularly sensitive to immune checkpoint inhibitors, an effect attributed to the higher mutation rate in these cancers. However, approximately 15% to 30% of patients with dMMR cancers do not respond to immunotherapy. This report describes 3 patients with Lynch syndrome who each had 2 primary malignancies: 1 with dMMR and a high tumor mutational burden (TMB), and 1 with dMMR but, unexpectedly, a low TMB. Two of these patients received immunotherapy for their TMB-low tumors but experienced no response. We have found that not all Lynch-associated dMMR tumors have a high TMB and propose that tumors with dMMR and TMB discordance may be resistant to immunotherapy. The possibility of dMMR/TMB discordance should be considered, particularly in less-typical Lynch cancers, in which TMB evaluation could guide the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Submitted May 16, 2020; accepted for publication October 27, 2020.

Disclosures: The authors have not received any financial consideration from any person or organization to support the preparation, analysis, results, or discussion of this article.

Funding: Research reported in this article was supported by the NIH under award number P30 CA 008748. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Work for this article was also supported by the American Cancer Society (134065-PF-19-125-01-CSM).

Correspondence: Rona Yaeger, MD, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 300 East 66th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10065. Email: yaegerr@mskcc.org
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Print ISSN:
1540-1405
Online ISSN:
1540-1413
Publisher:
National Comprehensive Cancer Network
Cover Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network
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Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 2021
Page Numbers:
4
Article Category:
Other
Received:
16 May 2020
Accepted:
27 Oct 2020
Print Publication Date:
01 Feb 2021
Online Publication Date:
02 Feb 2021

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