Dr. Mutti on Predicting Response to Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma

Luciano Mutti, MD, professor in Cancer Research, University of Salford Manchester, discusses predicting clinical response to immunotherapy agents for patients with mesothelioma.

Determining which patients will be likely to respond to immunotherapeutic agents is difficult, Mutti explains. PD-1/PD-L1 expression is suggested to be a valid biomarker of response, though it is imperfect. Therefore, more well-funded research needs to be conducted to further biomarker development.

Before starting a new treatment for patients with mesothelioma—and across all tumors, he adds—it is imperative that physicians determine the biology of the disease in order to truly administer optimal therapies and test for possible biomarkers and/or alterations.