João Gorgulho: Liquid Biopsy for Precision Immunotherapy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
João Gorgulho, Resident of Hematology and Oncology at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article he and his colleagues co-authored, published in Gut, adding:
“Just out in Gut!
I’m excited to share our latest work:
‘Circulating extracellular vesicles carrying PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 inform resistance to anti-PD-L1-based therapy in HCC.’
In this multicentre prospective study, we analyzed 279 patients, 677 longitudinal blood samples, and 37 matched tissue samples to investigate whether extracellular vesicle (EV)-associated immune checkpoints can serve as liquid biopsy biomarkers in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
Our findings show that circulating EV-derived PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4:
- Predict response and survival before treatment,
- Identify both primary and acquired resistance to immunotherapy
- Detect emerging biological resistance substantially earlier than conventional imaging.
These results support EV-based liquid biopsy as a promising approach for improving patient stratification, longitudinal treatment monitoring, and possibly enabling earlier therapeutic intervention in HCC.
Many thanks to all co-authors, collaborators, and participating patients who made this work possible. Special thanks to Johann von Felden and the entire team.”
Title: Circulating extracellular vesicles carrying PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 inform resistance to anti-PD-L1-based therapy in HCC
Authors: João Gorgulho, Ramsha Masood, Gustav Buescher, Franziska Giehren, Henrike Salié, Davina David, Francesca Pagani, Lorenz Kocheise, Constantin Schmidt, Moritz Waldmann, Mohsin Shafiq, Katharina Möller, Carsten Bokemeyer, Thomas Renné, Samuel Huber, Ansgar W. Lohse, Henning Wege, Cecile L. Maire, Franz Ricklefs, Katrin Lamszus, Kai Breitwieser, Meike J. Saul, Carolin Zimpel, Jens Marquardt, Bernhard Scheiner, Lorenz Balcar, Matthias Pinter, Enrico de Toni, Ignazio Piseddu, Najib Ben Khaled, Kornelius Schulze, Johann von Felden
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