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ARTICLE | Clinical News

Vanderbilt team finds new biomarker of anti-PD-1 sensitivity

February 4, 2016 2:05 AM UTC

A Vanderbilt University research team has identified a biomarker for predicting sensitivity to anti- PD-1 therapies in melanoma patients. The authors suggested that the biomarker could be cheaper and easier to measure than other biomarker candidates in melanoma.

In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers measured levels of major histocompatibility complex class II DR ( HLA-DR) in tumor tissue samples from two clinical trials testing anti-PD-1 or anti- PD-L1 mAbs to treat melanoma. Although HLA-DR expression is normally restricted to immune cells, the group found HLA-DR expression was activated in about half of the tumor samples and that its presence correlated with increased overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and higher rates of complete and partial responses. ...