Antigen-based metric may better predict immunotherapy responses

A constant challenge with new therapies is knowing which patients will most benefit. In a new study, researchers report coming up with a metric that could help better predict which cancer patients will most benefit from immunotherapy, in which the body's immune system is leveraged to attack cancer cells. The new metric relies on using the specific genetic profiles of neoantigens — which are molecules on cancer cells' surface that are foreign to the immune system. Scientists found that patients with higher neoantigen-based metric scores responded better to immunotherapies than those with lower scores. Patients with higher scores were also likelier to have a sustained response to therapy while others only saw a short-term benefit. However, the test was based on a responses from a small set cancer patients and will still need to be validated in larger groups.