Cancer research advances through genomic and immunopeptidomic profiling

Researchers are advancing cancer treatment through new genomic and immunogenomic profiling techniques. At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, an integrated antigen discovery platform has been developed to identify tumor-specific antigens in multiple myeloma. By combining long-read RNA sequencing with mass spectrometry-based HLA immunoprecipitation, the platform identified 1,255 candidate peptides mapping to 891 unique genes, most of which had not been previously characterized in the context of the disease.

In a separate large-scale study, researchers analyzed the genomic and transcriptomic landscape of over 1,300 sarcoma specimens. The study identified recurrent somatic mutations and noted an increased mutational burden in metastatic samples compared to primary tumors. The research also identified five distinct immune subtypes within the sarcoma cohort, noting that immune-depleted clusters were associated with inferior overall survival rates.