Dr Patel on the Utility of the IPS Test in Solid Tumors

“Similarly to how we think about genomically guided biomarkers helping improve drug development for targeted therapies, future iterations of IPS may inform which patients may benefit from a novel therapeutic strategy.”

Sandip P. Patel, MD, professor, medicine, Department of Medicine, medical oncologist, Precision Immunotherapy Clinic, Moores Cancer Center, University of San Diego (UCSD), UCSD Health, discusses the Immune Profile Score (IPS) and how it may be used to inform treatment decision-making with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with solid tumors.

The IPS test can offer valuable insights into clinical scenarios where immune checkpoint blockade alone may not be sufficient, Patel begins. For instance, in thoracic oncology, particularly in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with PD-L1 expression greater than 50%, it remains unclear whether monotherapy with anti–PD-1 treatments or chemotherapy combined with PD-1 inhibitors is the more effective approach, he shares. In these situations, tumor burden and the patient’s ability to tolerate chemotherapy are key factors that influence treatment decisions, Patel notes.

Additionally, the IPS test can help distinguish between patients who may not benefit as much from chemotherapy, he continues. For example, patients with a high IPS score may not respond well to chemotherapy, whereas those with a low IPS score, who are more likely to benefit from chemotherapy, could potentially see improved outcomes with the addition of chemotherapy alongside PD-L1 inhibition, according to Patel. This highlights how the IPS score can guide treatment decisions when multiple reasonable standard-of-care care options are available, Patel emphasizes.

Moreover, IPS and other transcriptomic-based immune biomarkers are important tools for identifying which patient populations are more likely to benefit from existing immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting CTLA-4 and the PD-(L)1 axis, he expands. Looking ahead, next-generation versions of the IPS test could provide valuable insights into which patients might respond to novel immunotherapies currently under clinical investigation, Patel says. These advancements in biomarker-driven treatment decisions could also guide the development of targeted therapies, he concludes.