Certified Podcasts Presented by the Publishers of The ASCO Post

A Certified Podcast Series

Predictive and Prognostic Biomarkers in Immunotherapy: A Certified Podcast Series
Release Date: Friday, December 21, 2018
Expire Date: Saturday, December 21, 2019


The Evolving Role of Biomarkers in Oncology

Dr. Velcheti and Dr. Borghaei discuss challenges in using programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and tumor mutation burden (TMB) as biomarkers to determine which patients will or won’t respond to immunotherapy with a checkpoint inhibitor as well as whether biomarkers exist to identify which patients will experience adverse events from immunotherapies.

Estimated Time to Complete: 15 minutes



Testing for Microsatellite Instability and Deficient DNA Mismatch Repair

Citing the recent landmark tumor-agnostic approval of pembrolizumab for patients with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H)/deficient DNA mismatch repair (dMMR) tumors and the approval of nivolumab/ipilimumab in MSI-H/dMMR colorectal cancer, Dr. Velcheti and Dr. Borghaei discuss the role of MSI-H and dMMR testing in immunotherapy treatment selection.

Estimated Time to Complete: 15 minutes



Tumor Mutation Burden Testing

Dr. Velcheti and Dr. Rimm discuss the recent clinical trials that studied tumor mutation burden (TMB) as a biomarker and the mechanisms behind why tumors with high TMB respond to immunotherapy.

Estimated Time to Complete: 15 minutes



PD-L1 Expression Testing

Dr. Velcheti and Dr. Rimm discuss the high number of recent programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor approvals and the need to harmonize the various diagnostic assay developments across the supporting clinical trials. Dr. Rimm notes the important difference between companion diagnostics, which must be used to test PD-L1 levels before prescribing a drug, and complementary diagnostics, which the FDA recommends using prior to prescribing the PD-L1 inhibitor.

Estimated Time to Complete: 15 minutes



These activities, certified for CME credit, are jointly provided by:

This certified podcast series is supported by educational grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Lilly USA, LLC.