Un sous-groupe de cancer gastrique positif au virus d’Epstein-Barr (EBV) identifié pour sa sensibilité à l’immunothérapie

Several studies have shown an association between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and some human cancers such as a subgroup of gastric carcinomas. The oncogenic potential of EBV has been widely explored but the exact processes conducting carcinogenesis are not yet fully understood. EBV-encoded viral proteins are known to deregulate the DNA damage response (DDR) signaling pathways. DDR inactivation leads to genomic instability and promote cellular transformation to generate malignant cells. In a recently published article in Nature Medicine, a molecular characterization of tumor tissue and circulating tumor DNA (cDNA) from non-selected patients with metastatic gastric cancer treated with pembrolizumab was conducted. This work showed that a strong correlation between PD-L1 positivity, EBV(+) and MSI-H could be established in the studied cohort. These results suggest that EBV(+) gastric cancer might, similarly to MSI-H tumors, be a target of high-potential for getting a clinical benefit of immunotherapy. Together, these data suggest that EBV status might thus serve as a clinical biomarker to identify patients with gastric cancer who would benefit from immunotherapy. Beyond their clinical interest, these works also pave the way for additional fundamental researches that will allow better characterizing the underlying molecular mechanisms.