Krishna Vanaja Donkena, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Center for Individualized Medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses using immune and checkpoint markers to predict cancer-specific survival in bladder cancer.

If the marker Foxp3 is expressed on the invasive margin region, it has very good significance in terms of prediction, says Donkena. The killer t-cell molecule CD8 is also a good predictor for cancer-specific survival.

Checkpoint molecules can also help predict survival, she says. PD-1, if it is expressed on the invasive margin region, is the best checkpoint marker for survival. IDO1 expression in the non-tumor region is also a good marker.

Using both the immune markers and the checkpoint markers, Donkena and her team at the Mayo Clinic have developed a combined score system. If a patient has a score of 8-12, for example, they have 0% risk of cancer-specific death. If a patient has a combined marker score of 0-4, then the risk of cancer-specific is death is high, says Donkena.

Krishna Vanaja Donkena, PhD

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Krishna Vanaja Donkena on Using Immune Markers to Predict Survival in Bladder Cancer