Dr. Keith Kerr on Selecting Patients for Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer

Keith Kerr, BSc, MB, ChB, FRCPath, FRCPE, of the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, discusses patient selection for immunotherapy in lung cancer.

Patient selection for immunotherapy is a controversial topic, says Kerr. The community is concerned that PD-L1 is not the ideal biomarker and many oncologists would prefer not to have to select patients at all and just give PD-1 inhibitors to everyone, says Kerr.

However, this is unrealistic, for both medical and financial reasons, he says. If you look at healthcare on a global scale, it is not going to be feasible or practical to give these drugs to everyone, and so the search for a more effective biomarker must continue.