Blood platelet RNA profiles do not enable for nivolumab response prediction at baseline in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer

We report RNA-sequencing data of 286 platelet RNA samples isolated from non-small cell lung cancer patients (NSCLC) that were at baseline for nivolumab immunotherapy. This dataset was employed to test the hypothesis that platelet RNA at baseline of nivolumab treatment predicts immune responses. Overall design: Blood platelets were isolated from whole blood in purple-cap BD Vacutainers containing EDTA anti-coagulant by standard centrifugation. Total RNA was extracted from the platelet pellet, subjected to cDNA synthesis and SMARTer amplification, fragmented by Covaris shearing, and prepared for sequencing using the Truseq Nano DNA Sample Preparation Kit. Subsequently, pooled sample libraries were sequenced on the Illumina Hiseq 2500 or 4000 platform. All steps were quality-controlled using Bioanalyzer 2100 with RNA 6000 Picochip, DNA 7500 and DNA High Sensitivity chips measurements. For further downstream analyses, reads were quality-controlled using Trimmomatic, mapped to the humane reference genome using STAR, and intron-spanning reads were summarized using HTseq.