High somatic mutation and neoantigen burden are correlated with decreased progression-free survival in multiple myeloma

Tumor-specific mutations can result in immunogenic neoantigens, both of which have been correlated with responsiveness to immune checkpoint inhibitors in highly mutagenic cancers. However, early results of single-agent checkpoint inhibitors in multiple myeloma (MM) have been underwhelming. Therefore, we sought to understand the relationship between mutation and neoantigen landscape of MM patients and responsiveness to therapies. Somatic mutation burden, neoantigen load, and response to therapy were determined using interim data from the MMRF CoMMpass study (NCT01454297) on 664 MM patients. In this population, the mean somatic and missense mutation loads were 405.84(s = 608.55) and 63.90(s = 95.88) mutations per patient, respectively. There was a positive linear relationship between mutation and neoantigen burdens (R² = 0.862). The average predicted neoantigen load was 23.52 (s = 52.14) neoantigens with an average of 9.40(s = 26.97) expressed neoantigens. Survival analysis revealed significantly shorter progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with greater than average somatic missense mutation load (N = 163, 0.493 vs 0.726 2-year PFS, P = 0.0023) and predicted expressed neoantigen load (N = 214, 0.555 vs 0.729 2-year PFS, P = 0.0028). This pattern is maintained when stratified by disease stage and cytogenetic abnormalities. Therefore, high mutation and neoantigen load are clinically relevant risk factors that negatively impact survival of MM patients under current standards of care.