Cancer immunoprevention: A case report raising the possibility of "immuno-interception"

Abstract

Immune checkpoint blockade therapy provides substantial benefits for subsets of patients with advanced cancer, but its utility for cancer prevention is unknown. Lynch syndrome (MIM 120435) is characterized by defective DNA mismatch repair and predisposition to multiple cancers. A variant of Lynch syndrome, Muir-Torre syndrome (MIM 158320), is characterized by frequent gastrointestinal tumors and hyperplastic or neoplastic skin tumors. We report the case of a man with Muir-Torre syndrome who had 136 cutaneous or visceral hyperplastic or neoplastic lesions over a period of 19 years (mean 7.5 neoplasms/year, range 2-26) prior to receiving pembrolizumab immunotherapy as part of multimodality treatment for invasive bladder cancer. He not only had a complete response of the bladder cancer, but also was noted to have an absence of new cancers during a 22-month follow-up period. This case adds to the rationale for exploring the utility of immune checkpoint blockade for cancer prevention, particularly for patients with DNA repair deficits.