Novel Tool for Predicting Response to Immunotherapy in Melanoma Under Study
Source: The Asco Post, January 2025
A team of scientists from the United Kingdom and the United States has discovered that the activity of macrophages may prove to be useful in predicting whether or not a patient with melanoma will respond to immunotherapy. Their findings, published in JCO Oncology Advances, may help clinicians to select treatments that are most likely to be effective for their patients.
Researchers from the Universities of Bath (United Kingdom) and Stanford University (California), have examined novel biomarkers that may identify patients with melanoma more likely to respond to the immunotherapy known as T-VEC (talimogene laherparepvec). This modified oncolytic virus is injected into melanoma directly to stimulate an immune response. Although it previously has been used in advanced melanoma, this study is reportedly the first to examine its potential to treat high-risk stage II melanoma in the upfront setting.
It was conventionally thought that T-VEC worked by activating T cells. However, the team found that preexisting and posttreatment T-cell populations did not have association with treatment responses. Instead, they found that changes in the macrophages seemed to correlate to which patients responded to the treatment and which did not.