A new sequencing study in hundreds of pediatric cancer cases has revealed potential targets for cancer vaccines, adoptive T cell therapy, or other forms of immunotherapy.

Researchers from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used genomic and transcriptomic profiles for tumors from 540 children to look for somatic mutations and fusions that might produce new antigen targets, or neoepitopes. As they reported in Genome Medicine yesterday, the search led to predicted neoepitopes in 90 percent of the solid tumors considered and 88 percent of leukemia cases.