Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death in USA and new studies continue to conduct to help patients in successfully recovering from the disease. According to a new study, a blood-based proteomic test can help in identifying patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are not likely to get benefit from Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor (ICI) therapy. The study has been published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
ICIs are a useful treatment option for NSCLC patients but it does not work for all the patients. The study recommends that ICI monotherapy is good for patients with tumor PD ligand expression higher than 50% and ICI combined with chemotherapy is indicated for patients with PD-L1 expression levels. This study helps in choosing the right treatment regimens. The team included 35 treatment sites in US and utilized HIC testing for all patients. Over 3500 patients were enrolled and of those 877 patients received first-line therapies and 284 of those received regimens including ICIs. As per the data, patients in HIC-Hot classification had significantly longer survival as compared to patients categorized as HIC-Cold.
In this study, the data suggested that patients who are HIC-Cold are not good for ICI monotherapy, even if their PD-L1 expression levels indicate it. “While PD-L1 is viewed as the standard biomarker for PD-1-based immunotherapy for lung cancer, these data add to the body of evidence that checkpoint pathways represent a network that involves many other elements besides the PD-1/PD-L1 complex,” the team, wrote.
“Considering the inconsistent correlation between PD-L1 expression and ICI efficacy, the significant adverse events profile of ICI, and their cost to the patient and the health care system, finding additional indicators of patient benefit from ICI combinations or monotherapy is a focus for both physicians and patients,” Akerley and colleagues added.
The information shared in this blog is for educational purposes only. You should contact your healthcare professional for any medical advice.
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