PD-L2 Adds Value to Immunotherapy Prediction in Head and Neck Cancers, Merck Study Finds

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – A new study in Clinical Cancer Research has shown that certain cancer patients with altered PD-L2 expression may do better when treated with PD-1 targeting immunotherapy regardless of their levels of PD-L1, which is the current biomarker of choice for this class of drugs.

Both PD-L1 and PD-L2 are binding partners of PD-1, and so both have the biologic potential to impact in some way the activity of PD-1 axis therapies. However, most investigations so far have focused on PD-L1.