Application : EP2015054593W·2015-03-05

Inventors : Cherfils-Vicini J, Fridman WH, and Cremer I

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventors have discovered that a high expression of TLR7 confers poor overall survival and impacts response to treatment in patients treated with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, making TLR7 a strong prognostic marker. In addition, the inventors have shown that TLR7 could also be a predictive marker for response to chemotherapy. Indeed, they have shown that high TLR7 expression is associated with resistance to chemotherapy in patients. Also, the inventors have observed a good correlation of TLR7 expression on tumor cells present in the metastatic lymph nodes before and after chemotherapy and in primary tumors after chemotherapy. This indicates that mediastinal lymph nodes can be used as a representative sample for TLR7 expression in the primary tumor. Therefore, the present invention relates a method of prognosis of cancer in a patient, comprising the step of detecting the expression of TLR7 in tumor cells of said patient.

In another aspect, the invention relates to method for predicting the response to treatment with an anti-cancer agent in a patient suffering from cancer, comprising the step of detecting the expression of TLR7 in tumor cells of said patient.

In another aspect, the invention also relates to a method for treating a patient suffering from cancer with an anti-cancer agent, comprising the steps of:

• selecting patients who do not express TLR7 in tumor cells in the primary tumor and/or who do not express TLR7 in tumor cells in metastatic lymph nodes,
• administering a therapeutically effective amount of anti-cancer agent to said patient.

The invention also relates to the use of TLR7 in lymph nodes as a bio marker.