Fig. 5: Proposed workflow for deciding an optimal treatment course.
From: Cancer immunotherapy: it’s time to better predict patients’ response
The collaboration between oncologists ①, pathologists (2a, evaluations of both PD-L1 expression and intratumoral immune cell infiltration) and geneticists [2b, assessment of tumour mutational burden (TMB)] would lead to the establishment of a score that would guide the course of treatment (3a). Patients with a favourable/high score would be treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, while patients considered as having a low probability of an efficient/durable response would undergo an alternative treatment (e.g. radiotherapy, chemotherapy) alone or prior to immunotherapy (after re-evaluation).
