The role of biomarkers in personalized immunotherapy

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer therapeutic paradigm and substantially improved the survival of patients with advanced malignancies. However, a significant limitation is the wide variability in clinical response. MAIN TEXT: Several biomarkers have been evaluated in prior and ongoing clinical trials to investigate their prognostic and predictive role of patient response, nonetheless, most have not been comprehensively incorporated into clinical practice. We reviewed published data regarding biomarkers that have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as well as experimental tissue and peripheral blood biomarkers currently under investigation. We further discuss the role of current biomarkers to predict response and response to immune checkpoint inhibitors and the promise of combination biomarker strategies. Finally, we discuss ideal biomarker characteristics, and novel platforms for clinical trial design including enrichment and stratification strategies, all of which are exciting and dynamic to advance the field of precision immuno-oncology. CONCLUSION: Incorporation and standardization of strategies to guide selection of combination biomarker approaches will facilitate expansion of the clinical benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy to appropriate subsets of cancer patients.