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Soo Park, MD
Soo Park, MD
Posted: Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Identification of select immune-based biomarkers may help to predict clinical outcomes for patients with melanoma, according to Yvonne Saenger, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, and colleagues. In fact, three immune biomarkers were found to be associated with recurrence in this patient population, and two biomarkers successfully identified high- and low-risk groups. The findings of this study were presented at the 2024 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting (Abstract 127).
“We propose that immune biomarkers should be further tested in a prospective setting for near-term application as stratification tools for clinical trials in early-stage melanoma,” stated the study investigators. “This may accelerate development of successful therapeutics by allowing for smaller and more conclusive trials enrolling high-risk patients. Further, patients at low risk for recurrence could be managed more conservatively, avoiding toxic immunotherapy combinations, whereas higher-risk patients would be prioritized for clinical studies.”
Previously published prognostic immune biomarkers, the NanoString-based Melanoma Immune Profile (MIP), CD8/CD68 ratio using quantitative immunofluorescence, and electronic tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), were tested using an independent cohort of patients with stage II or III melanoma treated at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York (n = 160). Correlations between survival outcomes and immune biomarkers were analyzed using receiver operating curves and Kaplan-Meier curves.
All three biomarkers tested were found to be associated with distant metastatic recurrence as well as recurrence-free survival within 36 months (P < .001 for all measures). Stage IIB to IIIA tumors were considered a low-risk group and were analyzed separately. In this lower-risk group, MIP and electronic TILs successfully distinguished across the high- and low-risk populations (P < .000) and were associated with survival models.
Disclosure: No disclosure information was provided.
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