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Table 1 Selected potential biomarkers for immunotherapy

From: Perspectives in melanoma: Meeting report from the Melanoma Bridge (30 November–2 December, 2017, Naples, Italy)

 

Basis

Challenges

PD-L1

IHC approach to measuring PD-L1 expression on tumour and immune cells

Variability in assays, antibodies and tumour microenvironment

CD8+ T cells

PD-1/PD-L1 expression on CD8+ T cells predicts response to PD-1 agents

Optimal cut-off points, scoring metrics and agreement on magnitude of change needed for meaningful prediction of response

Tumour mutation load

High mutation load resulting from various factors correlated with response to checkpoint inhibitors in exceptional responders

Availability of adequate tissue for sequencing; whole exome sequencing expensive and slow turnaround time vs. other clinical assays

Neoantigen burden

Predict clinical benefit to ipilimumab and PD-1 blockade in melanoma and lung cancer

As above

Gene expression profiling

IFN-induced signatures may predict response to checkpoint inhibitors

Sizable tissue collection needed to validate testing and training sets