Advancements in personalized cancer immunotherapy

The field of oncology is increasingly shifting toward personalized medicine, specifically through the use of targeted therapies and immunotherapy. Medical professionals emphasize that because ‘every cancer’s mechanism of formation and proliferation is different,’ treatments must be tailored to specific molecular or genetic characteristics rather than relying solely on traditional chemotherapy.

Global trends show a significant rise in immune-based treatments, with patient numbers increasing by more than 300% over the last decade. In Germany, precision technology and genetic testing are being utilized to tailor treatments to individual biology, with certain mutation-specific programs achieving response rates between 40% and 60%. To support these advancements, the biopharmaceutical sector is developing new technological platforms, such as the Promega HiBiT Target Cell Killing platform, to measure cytotoxicity and verify mechanisms of action.

Recent research in Germany has introduced new methods for predicting treatment efficacy. A study by the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein and the University of Lübeck utilizes thin, viable tissue slices from freshly operated patients to test how specific drugs affect an individual tumor’s structure and immune cells in a laboratory setting. Early results indicate that patients whose tumor tissue responded well to a drug in the lab also experienced longer periods without disease progression during actual treatment.

Additionally, an international study involving the Universities of Frankfurt and Marburg examined the immunotherapy drug Atezolizumab for triple-negative breast cancer. While the treatment did not provide a significant overall survival advantage, it increased the rate of pathological complete remission from 57 percent to 63 percent. Researchers suggest that identifying biological markers, such as high numbers of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, may help identify patients most likely to benefit from immunotherapy.