Tumor mutational burden (TMB) refers to the total number of non-inherited mutations found in the DNA of cancer cells and can help determine the best course of treatment. This retrospective study, published in Future Oncology, focuses on the use of tumor mutational burden testing in pan-tumor populations. So far, there is limited real-world information regarding patients that receive this type of testing.
The patients in this study were all diagnosed with advanced solid tumors. Patients were divided into TMB testing and non-TMB testing groups. The TMB cohort consisted of 202 patients, while the non-TMB group consisted of 212 patients. Clinical characteristics were mostly similar between the two cohorts, but systemic treatments were higher in the TMB cohort.
The demographics of the two cohorts also varied. The TMB cohort had a mean age of 62.1, compared to 65.6 in the non-TMB cohort. Moreover, 21.3% of the TMB cohort consisted of Black patients, compared to only 11.8% in the non-TMB group. These differences were statistically significant. The reasons and implications for them have yet to be addressed [1].
Source:
[1] Gautam, S., Kachroo, S., DeClue, R. W., Fisher, M. D., & Basu, A. (2021). Real-world patterns on tumor mutation burden testing in a pan-tumor population. Future Oncology, 17(15), 1879–1887. https://doi.org/10.2217/fon-2020-1005
