Advances in immuno-oncology (IO) are altering the standard care of cancer and drug development platforms. Immunotherapy has been approved as an important treatment option for patients of many cancer types. However, despite many immunotherapies produce initial clinical responses, most advanced cancer patients recur so that currently there is an urgent need to identify and counteract both the intrinsic resistance as well as acquired mechanisms. Developing high-throughput biomarkers to evaluate diagnostic, predictive, prognostic and therapeutic effects of newly developed drugs is the most dynamic phase in IO today. The complexity of cancer and the immune response comes with the setbacks on discovery and validation of predictive biomarkers for IO since it can differ vastly between people and cancer subtypes. Approaches for biomarker discovery includes next-generation gene expression profiling, which includes patient-level biomarker characterization, and multiplex spatial protein profiling to identify protein targets including immune and cancer cell markers. Technologic advantages and constant improvements in biomarker discovery change the IO landscape quickly, only to get better outcome in effective practices in the clinic.

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