The benefits of cancer immunotherapy are without question…for the subset of patients that it is applicable. While immunotherapy has been shown to shrink tumors and prolong survival for patients for whom other treatments have failed, only about 20–30% of patients benefit from it, and clinicians don’t yet know ahead if their patients will respond. Having a comprehensive assay that could quickly determine patients that will benefit from immunotherapy treatments would be invaluable, since these treatments can have severe side effects in a small percentage of patients, and knowing whether to begin or continue would be helpful for patients and clinicians weighing different treatment options.
