Abstract
Therapeutic options for treating advanced melanoma are progressing rapidly. Although anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD1) antibodies (e.g., nivolumab, pembrolizumab) have been approved as first-line and anchor drugs, respectively, for treating advanced melanoma, the efficacy appears limited as we expected, especially in Asian populations. Biomarkers to predict or evaluate the efficacy of anti-PD1 antibodies are needed to avoid subjecting patients to potentially severe adverse events associated with switching to other anti-melanoma drugs. This review focuses on the recent development of biomarkers for assessing the efficacy of anti-PD1 antibodies using routine blood tests such as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, eosinophil ratio, serum markers such as lactate dehydrogenase, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on melanoma cells, microsatellite instability and mismatch repair deficiency assays, as well as soluble CD163, and tumor-associated macrophage-related chemokines (e.g., CXCL5, CXCL10).
Highlights
Anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) antibodies are in wide use for the treatment of various cancers, cancers with a high tumor mutation burden (TMB) such as advanced cutaneous melanoma [1,2,3,4]
This review focuses on the recent development of biomarkers for assessing the efficacy of anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD1) antibodies using routine blood tests such as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, eosinophil ratio, serum markers such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on melanoma cells, microsatellite instability (MSI) and mismatch repair deficiency assays, as well as soluble CD163, and tumor-associated macrophage (TAM)-related chemokines (e.g., CXCL5, CXCL10) (Table 1)
Fujisawa et al reported that increased baseline Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) combined with serum LDH was significantly correlated with the efficacy rate of nivolumab according to multivariate analysis, and negatively correlated with efficacy of nivolumab for advanced melanoma [14]
Summary
Anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) antibodies are in wide use for the treatment of various cancers, cancers with a high tumor mutation burden (TMB) such as advanced cutaneous melanoma [1,2,3,4]. This review focuses on the recent development of biomarkers for assessing the efficacy of anti-PD1 antibodies using routine blood tests such as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, eosinophil ratio, serum markers such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), PD-L1 expression on melanoma cells, microsatellite instability (MSI) and mismatch repair deficiency assays, as well as soluble CD163, and tumor-associated macrophage (TAM)-related chemokines (e.g., CXCL5, CXCL10) (Table 1).
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