Unsupervised grouping methods failed to identify distinct groups associated with clinical features. Patients with muscle-invasive disease showed lower urine levels of the TNF-receptor superfamily members CD27 and CD40, and systemic increase in matrix metallopeptidase 7 (MMP7), a member of an enzyme family that degrades extracellular matrix proteins and promote tumor cell migration (Figure). A machine learning (random forest) algorithm consistently identified these matrix metallopeptidases as the most important markers for invasiveness in plasma samples. They also identified MMP12, another enzyme in the same family, as a top-ranked predictor of poor survival.
Figure: MMP7 and MMP12 levels in patients with bladder cancer.
This study highlights the heterogenic nature of the immunogenic landscape in bladder cancer and its potential role in immunotherapeutic responses. The findings in plasma raise the possibility of using such biomarkers in the context of liquid biopsies.
Presented by: Martin Lord, PhD, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Written by: Anirban P. Mitra, MD, PhD, Urologic Oncology Fellow, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA, Twitter: @APMitra, with Ashish M. Kamat, MD, MBBS, President of IBCN and IBCG, Endowed Professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA, Twitter: @UroDocAsh at the International Bladder Cancer Network (IBCN) Annual Meeting, #IBCN2020, October 17, 2020.