Cancer Immunotherapy: Chapter 16. Comprehensive Immunomonitoring to Guide the Development of Immunotherapeutic Products for Cancer

Immunotherapy exploits the effector mechanisms of the immune system to combat cancer. A number of immunotherapeutic compounds are now firmly anchored in current treatment of cancer patients. For newly developed therapeutic entities, the study of the patient’s immune response to treatment remains an essential component of clinical trials. Under ideal circumstances, this analysis is accomplished by various laboratory assays that measure differences in wanted and unwanted immune parameters before, during, and after treatment, at both systemic and local levels, with the ultimate aim of identifying immune correlates of biological activity as well as clinical outcome. The biomarker identification process is assisted by a harmonization of assays and data reporting, because this enables a comparison of datasets obtained by testing similar therapeutic products in different trials. Moreover, a systematic use of the datasets to better understand the strengths, weaknesses and efficacy of various treatment modalities can guide decision making with regard to further clinical development, possibly encouraging investigators to move forward into larger trials or to further optimize immunotherapeutic compounds or approach. This chapter provides an overview of immunomonitoring principles to promote the clinical development of effective immunotherapeutics for cancer treatment.