Editorial: Community Series in Novel Biomarkers in Tumor Immunity and Immunotherapy: Volume II

Eyad Elkord^1*Takaji Matsutani^2*

• ¹Department of Biological Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
• ²Department of Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan

Cancer immunotherapy has recently revolutionized cancer treatment. However, response rates are still modest and further improvements are urgently needed. The identification of predictive biomarkers is critical for guiding treatment and predicting outcomes. This editorial highlights contributions from recent research, showcasing a range of innovative studies that explore biomarkers in tumor immunity and their implications for cancer immunotherapy. Predictive models for cancer therapies are an important area of research focus. The study by Shi et al. reported that PD-L1, tumor mutational burden (TMB) and neutrophils were prognostic biomarkers for a short-term efficacy of anti-PD-1 therapy combined with chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) associated with cancer immunotherapies are a concern.Xing et al. identified potential biomarkers for prediction of thyroid irAEs in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer. The study reported that elevated levels of adenosine deaminase (ADA) were associated with the occurrence of thyroid irAEs in these patients receiving anti-PD-1 therapy.The immune system plays critical roles in the development and treatment of different cancers. Interestingly, baseline pain was found to be an independent prognostic factor affecting the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer patients, potentially through promotion of CXCL12-mediated inflammation and immunosuppression.In search for biomarkers for therapeutic response to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a nationwide multi-centric prospective study aimed to identify pretreatment plasma exosome mRNAs as predictive biomarkers for nivolumab, a PD-1 inhibitor in head and neck cancer patients. Sato et al. reported that the plasma exosome mRNAs signature may better predict which patients respond to nivolumab, ensuring a more personalized approach to immune checkpoint inhibitors.