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. 2020 Oct 16:11:603157.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.603157. eCollection 2020.

Emerging Blood-Based Biomarkers for Predicting Response to Checkpoint Immunotherapy in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Shumin Li  1 , Chengyan Zhang  1 , Guanchao Pang  1 , Pingli Wang  1
Affiliations

Emerging Blood-Based Biomarkers for Predicting Response to Checkpoint Immunotherapy in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Shumin Li et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have brought impressive clinical benefits in a variety of malignancies over the past years, which dramatically revolutionized the cancer treatment paradigm. Monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy of ICIs targeting programmed death 1/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) has emerged as an alternative treatment for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, constrained by primary or acquired resistance, most patients obtain limited benefits from ICIs and occasionally suffer from severe immune-related adverse events. Moreover, owing to the complexity of the tumor microenvironment and the technical limitations, clinical application of PD-L1 and tumor mutation burden as biomarkers shows many deficiencies. Thus, additional predictive biomarkers are required to further advance the precision of proper patient selection, avoiding the exposure of potential non-responders to unnecessary immunotoxicity. Nowadays, an increasing number of investigations are focusing on peripheral blood as a noninvasive alternative to tissue biopsy in predicting and monitoring treatment outcomes. Herein, we summarize the emerging blood-based biomarkers that could predict the clinical response to checkpoint immunotherapy, specifically in patients with NSCLC.

Keywords: biomarker; immunotherapy; liquid biopsy; non-small-cell lung cancer; programmed death ligand 1.

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