The Multiple Potential Biomarkers for Predicting Immunotherapy Response—Finding the Needle in the Haystack

摘要

There have been significant advances in the treatment of cancer within the past 10 years. Immunotherapy is a new type of treatment which uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. In some cancers, including lung, melanoma, bladder and kidney, immunotherapy has shown the potential to make people with advanced/metastatic disease live longer. However, most people do not derive any benefit from immunotherapy treatment, and the treatment may cause potentially serious side effects. Currently, our ability to correctly choose who should start these treatments and who is likely to benefit is limited because we do not have many tests to help us make this decision. A number of tests (also known as biomarkers) from tumour tissue, blood and the microbiome have shown promising results. These will be discussed in this review article.