Biomarkers for predicting the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors

J Cancer. 2022 Jan 1;13(2):481-495. doi: 10.7150/jca.65012. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Immune checkpoint blockade has vastly changed the landscape of cancer treatment and showed a promising prognosis for cancer patients. However, there is still a large portion of patients who have no response to this therapy. Therefore, it's essential to investigate biomarkers to predict the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors. This article summarizes the predictive value of established biomarkers, including programmed cell death ligand 1(PD-L1) expression level, tumor mutational burden, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and mismatch repair deficiency. It also addresses the predictive value of tumorous mutations, circulation factors, immune-related factors, and gut microbiome with immunotherapy treatment. Furthermore, some of the emerging novel biomarkers, and potential markers for hyper progressive disease are discussed, which should be validated in clinical trials in the future.

Keywords: PD-L1 expression; Predictive biomarkers; circulation biomarkers; hyper progressive disease; immunotherapy.

Publication types

  • Review