In the journal Molecular Oncology, a paper titled “Tumor B-cell infiltration in platinum-treated advanced muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma” has been published, with Dr. Konrad Stawiski, MD, PhD, an assistant professor in our Department, as the first author.

The study analyzed tumor transcriptomes collected before treatment initiation from 189 patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma treated with cisplatin- or carboplatin-based chemotherapy. The analysis included three independent patient cohorts and integrated bioinformatics methods used to assess the composition of the tumor microenvironment.

The key finding of the study indicates that higher lymphocytic infiltration in the tumor was associated with longer overall survival, with the strongest signal observed for memory B cells. This association was most pronounced in patients treated with cisplatin-containing regimens and in tumors characterized by a pro-inflammatory, B-cell–rich microenvironment.

The publication highlights the importance of tumor microenvironment analysis, transcriptomics, and biostatistics in the search for biomarkers of response to systemic therapy. The results support further research into the role of B lymphocytes and tertiary lymphoid structures as potential components for stratifying patients with urothelial carcinoma. The work was conducted in collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Hospital del Mar/IMIM, and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Full text available here.