Validation of a clinical blood-based decision aid to guide immunotherapy treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: The widespread introduction of immunotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has led to durable responses but still many patients fail and are treated beyond progression.

Objective: This study investigated whether readily available blood-based tumor biomarkers allow accurate detection of early non-responsiveness, allowing a timely switch of therapy and cost reduction.

Methods: In a prospective, observational study in patients with NSCLC treated with nivolumab or pembrolizumab, five serum tumor markers were measured at baseline and every other week.

Dutch genome diagnostic laboratories accelerated and improved variant interpretation and increased accuracy by sharing data.

Each year diagnostic laboratories in the Netherlands profile thousands of individuals for heritable disease using next-generation sequencing (NGS). This requires pathogenicity classification of millions of DNA variants on the standard 5-tier scale. To reduce time spent on data interpretation and increase data quality and reliability, the nine Dutch labs decided to publicly share their classifications.