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VIDEO: Speaker outlines challenges of biomarker development
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NEW YORK — Janice M. Mehnert, MD, director of developmental therapeutics for melanoma and soft tissue oncology at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, reviewed the challenges of biomarker development in immuno-oncology during a presentation at HemOnc Today Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies.
Mehnert discussed how useful biomarkers are defined and identified, the challenges of assay development and how biomarkers can be applied to immunotherapy treatments for patients with metastatic melanoma.
“Without a clear integral biomarker, should we be treating first and asking questions later?” Mehnert said. “Our tumor microenvironment analysis of other factors in blood and tumors that affect induction and effectiveness of immune interventions will likely be necessary to optimize biomarker development, and mutation load is a potentially important predictor of response to checkpoint inhibition.”