ArticleFrontiers in oncology2021
Telomere Shortening in Peripheral Leukocytes Is Associated With Poor Survival in Cancer Patients Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy.
Article in Frontiers in oncology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Age and sex: dual drivers remodeling the anti-tumor immune microenvironment and shaping personalized immuno-oncology.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Telomere Length Is Associated With Adverse Atrial Remodeling in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Article
- Soluble and EV-bound CD27 act as antagonistic biomarkers in patients with solid tumors undergoing immunotherapy.Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR · 2024Article
- Inherited Telomere Biology Disorders: Pathophysiology, Clinical Presentation, Diagnostics, and Treatment.Transfusion medicine and hemotherapy : offizielles Organ der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Transfusionsmedizin und Immunhamatologie · 2024Review
- Current and Future Trends of Colorectal Cancer Treatment: Exploring Advances in Immunotherapy.Cancers · 2024Review
- Telomere length dynamics measured by flow-FISH in patients with obesity undergoing bariatric surgery.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Immune Activation, Exhaustion and Senescence Profiles as Possible Predictors of Cancer in Liver Transplanted Patients.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Article
- Cancer treatment-induced NAD+ depletion in premature senescence and late cardiovascular complications.The journal of cardiovascular aging · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundImmune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy represents a new standard of care for an increasing number of malignancies. Nevertheless, response rates and outcome of ICI treatment vary between individuals and the identification of predictive markers or hints towards immune cell exhaustion during therapy has remained a major challenge. Leukocyte telomere length is an established predictive biomarker of replicative aging and cellular proliferative potential in various hematological diseases. However, its relevance in the context of ICI therapy has not been investigated to date. Here, we analyze the age-adapted delta telomere length (ΔTL) of peripheral leukocytes as a potential predictive and prognostic marker in patients undergoing ICI therapy.
methodsAge-adapted delta telomere length (ΔTL) of 84 patients treated with ICIs for solid malignancies was measured
resultsΔTL was not significantly altered between patients with different tumor entities or tumor stages and did not predict tumor response to ICI therapy. However, ΔTLs at initiation of treatment were a prognostic marker for overall survival (OS). When using a calculated ideal cut-off value, the median OS in patients with shorter ΔTL was 5.7 months compared to 18.0 months in patients showing longer ΔTL. The prognostic role of age-adapted ΔTL was further confirmed by uni- and multivariate Cox-regression analyses.
conclusionIn the present study, we demonstrate that shorter telomere lengths in peripheral blood leukocytes are associated with a significantly impaired outcome in patients receiving ICI therapy across different malignancies. We explain our findings by hypothesizing an older replicative age in peripheral leukocytes of patients with an impaired overall survival, reflected by a premature TL shortening. Whether this association is ICI-specific remains unknown. Further follow-up studies are needed to provide insights about the exact mechanism of how shortened telomeres eventually affect OS and could help guiding therapeutic decisions in future.
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