Real-world evidence provides clinical insights into tissue-agnostic therapeutic approvals

Nat Commun. 2025 Mar 18;16(1):2646. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-57941-0.

Abstract

The US Food and Drug Administration approves tissue-agnostic therapies to target tumor biomarkers regardless of tumor type. In light of the growing number of such approvals in recent years, a better understanding of their relative clinical benefit across cancer types is required. To address this need, we analyzed tissue-agnostic indications (TMB-High, MSI-High/MMRd, BRAFV600E mutations, and NTRK and RET fusions) in a database of 295,316 molecularly-profiled tumor samples with associated clinical outcomes data. Here, we show that 21.5% of tumors harbored at least one of the tissue-agnostic indications investigated, including 5.4% lacking a cancer-specific indication. Our analysis reveals poor uptake of targeted therapies for rare NTRK fusions, significant differences in pembrolizumab-associated outcomes across tumor types for TMB-High and MSI-High/MMRd, as well as clinical benefits in tumor types and drugs of the same class not investigated in the pivotal clinical trials. These results demonstrate that treatment effects are not necessarily tissue-agnostic, and suggest possible expansion of therapeutic avenues for a given tissue-agnostic indication.

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized / therapeutic use
  • Biomarkers, Tumor* / genetics
  • Drug Approval*
  • Humans
  • Molecular Targeted Therapy
  • Mutation
  • Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Neoplasms* / genetics
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf / genetics
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret / genetics
  • United States
  • United States Food and Drug Administration

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf
  • pembrolizumab
  • BRAF protein, human
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret
  • RET protein, human