Dr. Goldberg on PD-1 Blockade in Tumors with Mismatch Repair Deficiency

Richard Goldberg, MD, interim division director, Medical Oncology, physician-in-chief, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, Klotz Family Chair of Cancer Research, professor, Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, associate director of outreach, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses PD-1 blockade in tumors with mismatch repair deficiency.

DNA reproduction can occur in error, Goldberg explains, resulting in a mismatched pair of enzymes that replaces DNA with a correct match. There is a subset of patients with hypermutated tumors who inherit or acquire the inability to correct this error. The use of a PD-1 inhibitor, which unblocks immune cells from recognizing a tumor's form, could be effective for patients with hypermutated tumors, Goldberg adds.

A phase II study of PD-1 blockade in tumors with mismatch repair deficiency demonstrated a high likelihood of tumor response and control in patients with colorectal cancer as well as other tumor types.