Biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors

Our plain-English summary of Biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors, by L.A. Lievense, J.P. Hegmans, J.G. Aerts (The Lancet. Oncology, 2014).

The study

• Authors: L.A. Lievense, J.P. Hegmans, J.G. Aerts
• Journal: The Lancet. Oncology
• Published: 2014;15(1):e1
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item was a letter to the editor, not a research study. It commented on an earlier phase 2 trial by Calabrò and colleagues that tested tremelimumab, a drug that blocks a protein called CTLA4, in patients with advanced malignant mesothelioma. The letter writers noted that the trial reported disease control in nine (31%) of the 29 enrolled patients. The trial had proposed a rise in one type of blood T cell (CD4-positive, ICOS-positive) as a possible marker of who benefits. The writers argued that this marker can only be measured after therapy starts. They wrote that the trial would have been more informative if it had reported CTLA4 levels in the tumour or blood before treatment. The authors concluded that markers able to predict response before treatment are desirable. The text also contained the start of a reply from the trial team. The team wrote that no such markers had yet been identified, and that in unpublished work they did not find CTLA4 on nine human mesothelioma cell lines. The letter did not discuss asbestos exposure.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Letter to the editor (correspondence) commenting on a previously published phase 2 trial; no new data were collected by the letter writers
• Who was studied: No population was studied by the letter writers; the letter discussed the earlier trial in patients with advanced malignant mesothelioma (29 enrolled patients)
• Exposure: The treatment discussed was tremelimumab, an anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibody; asbestos exposure was not discussed
• Main results:
  • The letter writers noted that the earlier trial (Calabrò and colleagues), not this letter, reported disease control in nine (31%) of 29 enrolled patients
  • The letter writers argued that the marker proposed by the trial can only be obtained after treatment begins, and that reporting CTLA4 expression in tumour or blood before treatment would have been informative
  • In the reply, the trial team stated that no markers to select patients who respond well to these antibodies had yet been identified
  • In the reply, the trial team reported, citing unpublished data, that they examined nine human mesothelioma cell lines for CTLA4 and did not identify it
• The authors' conclusion: The letter writers concluded that biomarkers able to predict response to checkpoint inhibitors before treatment are desirable

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Biomarker, checkpoint inhibitors.

Related studies

• Biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors--authors' reply — L. Calabrò, M. Maio (2014)
• Immunological checkpoint inhibitors enter adolescence — A.K. Nowak (2013)
• Tremelimumab for patients with chemotherapy-resistant advanced malignant mesothelioma: an open-label, single-arm, phase 2 trial — L. Calabrò, A. Morra, et al. (2013)
• Immune checkpoint blockade in malignant mesothelioma — L. Calabrò, M. Maio (2015)
• Immune checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): Approaches on special subgroups and unresolved burning questions — J. Remon, N. Vilariño, et al. (2018)
• Proton Beam Therapy and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma — M.G. McCusker, K.A. Scilla, et al. (2019)

Browse more research in The Lancet. Oncology, or return to medical research.