Grant Details
Grant Number: |
1R01CA255322-01A1 Interpret this number |
Primary Investigator: |
Fedirko, Veronika |
Organization: |
University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr |
Project Title: |
Gut Microbiome and Cancer Immunotherapy Outcomes in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma |
Fiscal Year: |
2022 |
Abstract
ABSTRACT
In 2021, approximately 76,080 individuals in the United States will be diagnosed with kidney cancer, with renal
cell carcinoma (RCC) accounting for >90% of all cases. Approximately 25% of patients with RCC present with
metastasis at the time of initial diagnosis and up to 20-30% of patients develop recurrent disease after
nephrectomy. Immunotherapy is a new standard-of-care option for the first-line treatment of intermediate-risk
or poor-risk patients with advanced RCC. However, the immunotherapy outcomes are heterogeneous, with
some patients achieving a complete remission, and others having no benefit at all. Therefore, it is important to
identify modifiable factors and biomarkers that could help with patient selection and risk stratification, and to
detect patients who will experience treatment-related adverse events and disease progression. Growing
evidence supports that the gut microbiome contributes to cancer therapy toxicities and may modulate response
to cancer therapy. Therefore, we propose to 1) identify and validate pre-treatment gut microbiome profiles,
specific bacterial species, and bacterial functional pathways associated with circulating T-cell activation, cancer
immunotherapy response, adverse events, and progression-free survival among patients with advanced RCC;
2) identify and validate cancer immunotherapy-associated changes in the gut microbiome profiles and bacterial
functional pathways, and their association with circulating T-cell activation, cancer immunotherapy response,
adverse events, and progression-free survival among patients with advanced RCC, 3) explore the role of
bacterial metabolites and related biomarkers in cancer immunotherapy response, and 4) obtain preliminary
data on the gut microbiome profiles and bacterial functional pathways and outcomes by sex and race. The
study results will contribute considerably to our understanding of the role of the gut microbiome in cancer
immunotherapy response, efficacy, and adverse events, and will be relevant not only for advanced RCC
patients, but also for a larger group of cancer patients treated with cancer immunotherapy, which is considered
to be most promising recent development in cancer therapy.
Publications
None