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Genomic Correlates of Response and Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Solid Tumors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors yield clinical benefit in many cancer types, but molecular predictors of response have not yet been robustly characterized. In this study, we pursued whole exome sequencing (WES) of pre-treatment tumors from patients treated with immune checkpoint therapies - including monoclonal antibodies targeting programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein-4 (CTLA-4). Using these data, we aim to apply computational pipelines for mutation-calling, neoantigen prediction, and other analyses to validate pre-existing hypotheses regarding response to immune checkpoint therapies and discover new relationships with greater power. Further, by pursuing genomic characterization of tumors from patients with a variety of cancer types, we hope to describe molecular features of intrinsically sensitive or resistant tumors that are both context-specific and shared across cancer types.