Study was conducted using the CLEARScore test that identifies eight genes linked to immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy drugs such as PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors represent the front-line treatment for kidney cancer. But it is expensive, benefits only a subset of patients and is futile in the majority of patients.
Researchers from the National Cancer Centre Singapore and Lucence Diagnostics have conducted a study using Lucence’s molecular test, CLEARScore, to predict whether a kidney cancer patient will or will not benefit from immunotherapy thus helping to reduce futile costs and side effects.
CLEARScore is an algorithm involving eight genes in the tumour, which classifies kidney cancer by molecular type.
Kidney cancer is among the ten most common cancers in men and women across the world. In 2018, there were over 400,000 new cases of kidney cancer globally.
Previously, the test has been used to successfully predict treatment response of kidney cancer patients to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, a type of targeted therapy. The results were published in 2015 in European Urology. [APBN]