New biomarker ‘could help guide lung cancer immunotherapy’

A new biomarker discovery could improve the chances of success for lung cancer patients receiving immunotherapy.

Researchers from the University of Southampton and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California have identified a certain type of immune cell that could predict which lung cancer patients will benefit most from immunotherapy treatment.

Their research indicated that lung cancer patients whose tumours contained large amounts of a particular type of immune T-cell called tissue-resident memory T-cells were 34 percent less likely to die.

It was also found that these cells tended to cluster together in particular tissues to protect the patient and produce other molecules that attack the tumour, meaning the immune system is more able to hunt out and destroy cancer cells.

As such, testing for levels of these cells could help doctors identify which patients will benefit most from immunotherapy.

Professor Christian Ottensmeier, a Cancer Research UK scientist at the University of Southampton, said: "So far, when we use immunotherapy we do not know if a patient will benefit. The new findings are a big step towards making this exciting treatment much more predictable."

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