Peripheral Blood TCR Repertoire Profiling May Facilitate Patient Stratification for Immunotherapy against Melanoma

ImmunTraCkeR® as a reliable TCR repertoire profiling tool to understand immune response and to explore immunotherapy biomarkers

Over the last decade, the host immunity has emerged as a critical determinant of cancer development and of response to therapy. Great progress has been made in the development of immunotherapies, which leverage the patient’s immune system to reach better clinical outcomes. Immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as antiCTLA-4 or anti-PD-1/PD-L1, show deep and durable tumor responses in various indic...

Peripheral blood clinical laboratory variables associated with outcomes following combination nivolumab and ipilimumab immunotherapy in melanoma

Both the combination of nivolumab + ipilimumab and single-agent anti-PD-1 immunotherapy have demonstrated survival benefit for patients with advanced melanoma. As the combination has a high rate of serious side effects, further analyses in randomized trials of combination versus anti-PD-1 immunotherapy are needed to understand who benefits most from the combination. Clinical laboratory values t...

TCR Repertoire and Foxp3 Expression

Differences in TCR-Vβ Repertoire and Effector Phenotype between Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes and Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes Increase with Age

Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) reflect the host's anti-tumor immune response, and can be a valuable predictor of prognosis. However, many properties of TIL are not fully understood. In the present study, TCR-Vβ repertoires of cancer patients were primarily analyzed by flow cytometry. Abnormally expressed TCR-Vβ subfamilies were generally found in both TIL and peripheral blood lymphocytes ...

Combination Immunotherapy for Melanoma.

Advances in precisionmedicine and immunology have led tomajor paradigmshifts in thegeneral approach to treatingpatientswith metastatic cancer. This is perhaps best exemplified by malignant melanoma, an aggressive tumor characterized by alterations in definedcell signalingpathwaysandsusceptibility to recognitionby the immunesystem.Over thepast4years, therehavebeen7newdrugs approved by the US Foo...