I mean, which physiological or immunological parameters/markers that I need to study to know the effect of using immunotherapy in the patients with lung cancer?
Any suggestion for research would be helpful?
Thanks for your time..
Hello Tabarak Jalil
For immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer, you should look out for PD-1 and PD-L1 immune markers, which will detect how sensitive cancer cells may be to checkpoint inhibitors. Checkpoint inhibitors block the signal between lung cancer cells and the immune cells that’s interfering with the body's ability to identify cancer cells as harmful. This triggers an immune response that causes the body to immediately release T-cells to attack and destroy the cancer cells.
T cells, like all cells, communicate through proteins. They use PD-1 as a probe. The PD-L1 protein, which is present on the surface of healthy cells, acts like a friendly flag to let the T cell know it can move on. The cancer cells have also evolved to include PD-L1 protein on their surfaces. This means T cells ignore rather than attack the cancer cells.
So, in a way, immune checkpoint inhibitors help the immune system recognize the fact that cancer cell is not a normal lung cell, and it needs to be eliminated.
Immunotherapy is used to treat patients with stage 3 or stage 4 lung cancer. Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer or small cell lung cancer may be eligible.
You may want to refer to the articles attached below for more information.
Article PD-L1 Testing for Lung Cancer in 2019: Perspective from the ...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(23)00198-6/fulltext
Article Anti-PD1 versus anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy in first-line thera...
Best.
Or check other immune markers in lung cancer cells like CTLA4
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/immunotherapy
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