The Austrian MedTech company BiomeDx has dedicated its efforts to advance precision medicine and is pioneering the development of a biomarker for cancer immunotherapy based on the intestinal microbiome. In a recent poster BiomeDx presented a study-based meta-analysis of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and melanoma patients that supports the potential of the human intestinal microbiome as a predictor for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) response. The poster was exhibited at the 45th annual conference of the Austrian Society for Pneumology (www.ogp-kongress.at) and 8th Theodor Escherich Symposium (www.medunigraz.at/theodor-escherich- symposium). The results align with findings from published studies and associate the abundance of certain species of bacteria with ICI response while a distinct group of bacteria are proven to be more abundant in non-responders.
The development of ICI therapeutics has been a revolutionary milestone in the field of immuno-oncology. Especially, for patients with NSCLC or melanoma ICI treatment has been a game changer. ICIs have shown to improve response and overall survival rates compared to standard cytotoxic chemotherapy. Yet, for a considerable number of patients ICI therapy is either associated with severe immune related adverse effects – such as fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dermatological reactions – or has limited to no benefit. For the treating doctors the need for a reliable prognostic biomarker is evident.
While the presented results clearly contribute to the existing pool of research the more remarkable finding is the ability to identify responders and non-responders independent of specific tumor types – in other words the biomarker developed by BiomeDx seems to be tumor agnostic.
If that proves to be accurate this single biomarker might be the key for a truly personalized cancer immunotherapy.
