Genomic and transcriptomic markers associated with response to immune checkpoint blockade

The neoantigen presentation score (NEOPS) study was designed to better understand molecular determinants of response to immunotherapies, including pembrolizumab and nivolumab in stage III or IV melanoma patients. From this work, we developed a composite approach to predicting neoantigens (NEOPS), which takes into account additional escape mechanisms, including HLA LOH (human leukocyte antigen loss of heterozygosity) and the impact of deleterious mutations to the antigen presentation machinery (APM), yielding an improved prediction of response to immunotherapy compared to TMB (tumor mutational burden) or neoantigen burden alone.