BOSTON - By analyzing tumors from patients treated with immunotherapy for advanced kidney cancer in three clinical trials, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists have identified several features of the tumors that influence their response to immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs. The research was presented during the Clinical Science Symposium at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting and published simultaneously in Nature Medicine. The researchers say the study provides important clues about kidney cancer genetics and its interaction with the immune system that may prove to be vital in our ability to predict which patients are likely to benefit from immunotherapy drugs, which have been approved for first- and second-line treatment in the disease, but which don't work in all patients