Dr. Jason Luke on Utilizing the Tumor Microenvironment as a Biomarker for Immunotherapy Response

Jason Luke, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how inflammation in the tumor microenvironment can serve as a biomarker of response for immunotherapy in melanoma.

Taking a broad look at the tumor microenvironment via gene expression profiling can provide insight into which patients with melanoma may respond better from immunotherapy, says Luke. Patients who have a T-cell inflamed tumor microenvironment are much more immunotherapy responsive, while patients who have no lymphocytes in their tumor microenvironment will most likely not respond to immunotherapy.

A useful clinical grade test could identify patients who are the most highly inflamed and are therefore good candidates for anti-PD-1 antibodies alone, says Luke. It could also identify those who have inflammation in the tumor microenvironment, and perhaps need the upfront combination of anti-CTLA-4 and PD-1 blocking agents, he adds.

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