Immunotherapy efficacy and gender: discovery in precision medicine

Immunotherapy is transforming the care of cancer. In the past five years, checkpoint blockade agents targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint (e.g., nivolumab, pembrolizumab) have garnered FDA approvals in diverse indications including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), renal cell carcinoma, and more (1-5). While these agents produce durable responses for some patients, the science of identifying responders remains inexact; further work is needed to identify biomarkers which better predict patient response than current clinical practice.