Novel Method for Predicting Immunotherapy Response in Melanoma Patients
Source: Doc Wire News, January 2025
A recent study shows that macrophages can be used to predict whether or not a melanoma patient will respond to chemotherapy. The results were published in Oncology Advances.
While immunotherapy is a potent treatment for many forms of cancer, unfortunately only around half of patients respond to this type of treatment. Therefore, selecting the optimal therapy is often a trial-and-error process.
In this study, researchers from the Universities of Bath (UK) and Stanford University (CA, USA), examined novel biomarkers that may be utilized to identify melanoma patients more likely to respond to TVEC immunotherapy, which is a modified oncolytic virus that is injected into melanoma directly to induce an immune response. While TVEC has previously be used in advanced melanoma, this study was the first to examine its potential to treat high-risk stage II melanoma patients.