Assay development of immuno-oncology panels with COMET™

I. Introduction

Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) has become an important tool for immune profiling of the tumor microenvironment, allowing for deeper understanding of the complex interplay between cancer and the immune system, and identifying predictive biomarkers of response to immunotherapy. Single-stain chromogenic immunohistochemistry (IHC) PD-L1 assays are now ubiquitous in tumor biomarker testing to predict patient response to PD1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibition. However, many patients still do not respond to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy, creating a need to characterize predictive biomarkers beyond PD1/PD-L1 that can be used to determine which therapeutic regimen is most likely to benefit a given patient.

In recent years, many studies have demonstrated the significance of tumor immune infiltrate densities, cell phenotypes, and spatial localization for the prediction of clinical outcomes, survival, and response to immunotherapy treatment.