The last decade has seen an incredible surge in the popularity of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatments as a way to increase cancer patient survival. With PBRM1’s high mutation rate in cancer, it has become a promising biomarker for differentiating outcomes of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. PBRM1 is a polybromo protein that plays various roles in transcription, translation, and DNA repair and has been found to be a key component of the PBAF complex, which is fundamental in chromatin remodeling.
This review highlights the different functions of PBRM1 associated with and independent of PBAF. As researchers continue their quest to understand the role of this gene, and whether it is beneficial or detrimental for immune checkpoint therapies, it’s evident more work needs to be done to understand differences between cancer types and PBRM1 mutations.
