AUTHOR=Levink Iris J. M. , Brosens Lodewijk A. A. , Rensen Sander S. , Aberle Merel R. , Olde Damink Steven S. W. , Cahen Djuna L. , Buschow Sonja I. , Fuhler Gwenny M. , Peppelenbosch Maikel P. , Bruno Marco J. 

TITLE=Neoantigen Quantity and Quality in Relation to Pancreatic Cancer Survival

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.751110

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.751110

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Factors underlying antitumor immunity in pancreatic cancer (PC) are poorly understood. We hypothesized that not neoantigen quantity, but quality, is related to immune cell infiltration and survival.</p></sec><sec><title>Methodology</title><p>We performed genomic and transcriptomic profiling of paired normal, tumor tissue of 13 patients with PC with distinct survival times. Additionally, neoantigens prediction and immunological profiling were performed.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The proportion of neoantigens with a low similarity-to-self score was higher in short-term survivors (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.0001), while mutational load and burden, similarity-to-known-pathogens, and immunogenicity of neoantigens were not associated with immune cell infiltration or survival.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>No tumor mutational load or neoantigen quantity, but low similarity-to-self score, was associated with immune cell infiltration and survival.</p></sec>