The Current Biomarker Landscape In Immuno-Oncology

Dr. El Mustapha Bahassi, Associate Director of Clinical Laboratories, Medpace

Despite the recent success of immunotherapy in effectively treating a variety of advanced and metastatic cancers1, only a fraction of treated patients show durable responses2. Notably, several failures have been reported in Phase 3 trials when these therapies are used as a single agent frontline therapy in patients with no prior biomarker-based stratification3-7. The first successful wave of immunotherapy included antibodies against the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte– associated antigen 4 (CTLA4), programmed deathligand 1 (PD-L1) and programmed death-1 (PD-1), but the number of immuno-oncology (I-O) targets is growing and the number of possible combinations, either of agents directed towards these targets or combined with conventional treatments, is rapidly expanding. Therefore, the development of new and efficient predictive biomarkers to guide the choice of agents and combinations is a high priority.