Define challenges of tissue-based biomarker development for Immuno-Oncology Therapy

Cancer immunotherapy had revolutionized the field of oncology, providing noveltherapeutic options for cancer patients with dramatically improved outcomes. However, the development of the new field of immuno-oncology requires a deep understanding of the inflammatory tumor microenvironment with the goal to identify predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy.   Multiplex immunofluorescencetechniques had become a key tool for the immune profiling of cancer tissue samplesfrom patients; however, these techniques are still in development, offering newchallenges   to   the   laboratory   scientist.   The   first   aim   of   this   talk   is   to   defineapplications of approved and experimental tissue-based biomarker assessment inImmuno-Oncology. We will explore the methodology of multiplex immune profilingfor   formalin   fixed   biopsy   specimens   for   immuno-oncology   studies,   including   adescription of the basic concepts, general workflow, optimization, and validationprocess. The second aim is to define bottlenecks and areas of improvement atdifferent levels of this biomarker strategy.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define applications of approved and experimental (multiplexing IF) biomarker assessment in Immuno-Oncology

2. Define bottlenecks and areas of improvement to current tissue-based biomarker strategies.