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Whether a melanoma patient will better respond to a single immunotherapy drug or two in combination depends on the abundance of certain white blood cells within their tumors, according to a new study conducted by UC San Francisco researchers joined by physicians from UCSF Health. The findings provide a novel predictive biomarker to identify patients who are most likely to respond well to a combination of immunotherapy drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors — and to protect those who won't respond from potentially adverse side effects of combination treatment. "Combination immunotherapy is super-expensive and very toxic," said Adil Daud, MD, director of Melanoma Clinical Research at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior author of the new study. "You're putting patients at a lot of extra risk if they don't need it, and you can adjust for that risk by knowing in advance who can benefit."

See original article at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170720095307.htm