Engaging.

We’re accustomed to thinking that the magnitude of expression of PD-L1 is predictive of response to immunotherapy–and it is. The problem is that most patients with NSCLC don’t respond well to immunotherapy. This interesting study used a quantitative functional proteomics platform to quantify how well the PD-1 and PD-L1 receptors engaged between lymphocytes and tumor cells in non-small cell lung cancer. PD-1/PD-L1 engagement had no correlation with PD-L1 expression. Furthermore, PD-1/PD-L1 engagement was a much better predictor of response to immunotherapy than PD-1/PD-L1 expression. Using PD-1/PD-L1 engagement as a predictive biomarker may better refine the use of immunotherapy in NSCLC and other malignancies. | Sanchez-Magraner, J Clin Oncol 2023