Biomarker Discovered That Predicts Whether Immunotherapy Will Be Effective in Cancer

The fact that immunotherapies do not work in a certain proportion of patients is one of the focal areas of cancer research. Therefore, biomarkers that can predict immunotherapy effectiveness in advance are needed. In January 2018, Naturepublished a study suggesting that a newly discovered biomarker can identify in advance which patients will benefit from immunotherapy.

Immunotherapiesoffer a highly effective treatment option, particularly for the skin cancer malignant melanoma, and kidney, bladder and lung cancers. These new-generation immunotherapies, called checkpoint inhibitors, prevent cancer cells from remaining invisible to the immune system. As a result, the immune system’s fighter cells become active and attack cancer cells.

In clinical trials, immunotherapies have managed to control cancer in nearly 50 percent of patients. However, immunotherapy is not effective in every patient. Biomarkers that can identify immunotherapy effectiveness in advance are needed.

To this end, researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland succeeded in predicting which patients would respond to immunotherapies using a new method they developed.

In the study, blood samples were collected from 20 melanoma patients before immunotherapy and 12 weeks afterward, and single-cell analyses were performed using advanced techniques. In other words, 50 different proteins in a single cell were examined simultaneously. This allowed each immune system cell in the patients to be examined in detail.

According to the Study Results:

• Molecular characteristics that could identify immunotherapy effectiveness in advance were defined.
• Immunotherapy effectiveness was found to be very low in patients with monocyte-type immune cells having CD14+CD16−HLA-DRhi characteristics.

What Does This Study Mean for Us?

• An important biomarker that could identify the effectiveness of immunotherapy in advance was discovered.
• This study marked an important step forward in precision medicine applications in oncology.
• Genetics- and immunology-based drugs will form the foundation of future cancer treatments. The discovery of predictors of this kind will contribute to effective and appropriate cancer treatment planning.
• The validity of biomarkers can be confirmed in large studies, enabling their use in clinical practice.
• What Is a Biomarker or Tumor Marker? What Role Does It Play in Cancer?