Jerome Galon, PhD, research director, French Institute of Health and Medical Research, discusses next steps for Immunoscore in oncology.

Immunoscore has demonstrated predictive value for treatment durations with FOLFOX among patients with early-stage colorectal cancer (CRC). At the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, Galon reported that patients with an intermediate or high Immunoscore responded better to 6 months of FOLFOX, whereas patients with a low Immunoscore did not derive any additional benefit from 6 months of treatment over 3 months of treatment.

If Immunoscore is to have widespread utility, the relevance of a patient’s preexisting immunity must be validated in other indications, says Galon. Although these trials are ongoing, Galon anticipates that Immunoscore will be very relevant to several tumor types. Moreover, Immunoscore has the potential to show predictive value for various therapeutic modalities, including immunotherapy and CAR T-cell therapy, in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies alike, he concludes.

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Jerome Galon, PhD, research director, French Institute of Health and Medical Research, discusses next steps with Immunoscore in oncology.

Next Steps for Immunoscore in Oncology

Jerome Galon, PhD, research director, French Institute of Health and Medical Research, discusses ways to expand the use of Immunoscore in early-stage colorectal cancer (CRC).

At the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, the IDEA study evaluated the benefit of 3 months of adjuvant chemotherapy versus 6 months in patients with stage III CRC. Researchers demonstrated that patients with an intermediate or high Immunoscore seemed to respond better to 6 months of FOLFOX. In contrast, patients with a low Immunoscore did not derive any additional benefit from 6 months of treatment versus 3 months of treatment.

Galon says the clinical utility of Immunoscore should be validated for other chemotherapy regimens like CAPOX, which is also used in the stage III setting. A similar study to IDEA should be conducted. Furthermore, in the stage II space, Immunoscore has been shown to effectively distinguish between high- and low-risk patients. As such, Immunoscore could have a role in determining which patients need chemotherapy or not in that setting as well.

Jerome Galon, PhD, research director, French Institute of Health and Medical Research, discusses ways to expand the use of Immunoscore in early-stage colorectal cancer.

Expanding the Use of Immunoscore in Early-Stage CRC

Jerome Galon, PhD, research director, French Institute of Health and Medical Research, discusses the clinical utility of Immunoscore in stage III colorectal cancer (CRC).

The current management of patients with stage III CRC is chemotherapy, but the duration of therapy remains under scrutiny, Galon says. The IDEA study evaluated the benefit of 3 months of adjuvant chemotherapy versus 6 months. In the study presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, researchers demonstrated that patients with an intermediate or high Immunoscore seemed to respond better to 6 months of chemotherapy. In contrast, patients with a low Immunoscore did not derive any additional benefit from 6 months of treatment versus 3 months of treatment.

Therefore, Galon recommends that patients with a low Immunoscore not be exposed to 6 months of a toxic regimen. For the time being, these patients should be referred to clinical trials since they will not benefit from the 6-month regimen.

Jerome Galon, PhD, research director, French Institute of Health and Medical Research, discusses the prognostic value of Immunoscore in stage III colorectal cancer.

The Clinical Utility of Immunoscore in Stage III CRC

Jerome Galon, PhD, research director at Inserm and head of the Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, discusses the prognostic value of the Immunoscore®Colon assay and its corresponding validation study, which was presented during the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Immunoscore® has been a project in development since 2005 to stratify patients into high- and low-risk categories. Results of an international validation study, which tested Immunoscore® in 3855 patients, demonstrated its prognostic value in patients with stage I, II, and III colon cancer.

Highlights of the ASCO presentation entitled “Validation of the Immunoscore® as a prognostic marker in stage I/II/III colon cancer” were that primary endpoint of the study has been reached, with significantly longer time to recurrence for patients classified as Immunoscore-High. Immunoscore® was also able to predict disease-free survival and overall survival among stage I, II, and III patients with colon cancer and importantly, in stage II patients, the Immunoscore® classification identified a subgroup of high-risk patients.

Jerome Galon, PhD, research director, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, discusses the prognostic value of the Immunoscore assay and its corresponding validation study, which was presented during the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Jerome Galon, PhD

Articles

Next Steps for Immunoscore in Oncology

Expanding the Use of Immunoscore in Early-Stage CRC

The Clinical Utility of Immunoscore in Stage III CRC

Jerome Galon on the Prognostic Value of Immunoscore