Open AccessCancer Immunotherapy Trials Underutilize Immune Response Monitoring
Author(s) -
Connell Claire M.,
Raby Sophie E.M.,
Beh Ian,
Flint Thomas R.,
Williams Edward H.,
Fearon Douglas T.,
Jodrell Duncan I.,
Janowitz Tobias
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the oncologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.176
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1549-490X
pISSN - 1083-7159
DOI - 10.1634/theoncologist.2017-0226
Subject(s) - immunotherapy , medicine , clinical trial , cancer , cancer immunotherapy , biomarker , immune system , oncology , immunology , biology , biochemistry
Immune‐related radiological and biomarker monitoring in cancer immunotherapy trials permits interrogation of efficacy and reasons for therapeutic failure. We report the results from a cross‐sectional analysis of response monitoring in 685 T‐cell checkpoint‐targeted cancer immunotherapy trials in solid malignancies, as registered on the U.S. National Institutes of Health trial registry by October 2016. Immune‐related radiological response criteria were registered for only 25% of clinical trials. Only 38% of trials registered an exploratory immunological biomarker, and registration of immunological biomarkers has decreased over the last 15 years. We suggest that increasing the utilization of immune‐related response monitoring across cancer immunotherapy trials will improve analysis of outcomes and facilitate translational efforts to extend the benefit of immunotherapy to a greater proportion of patients with cancer.