An independent review entitled “Immunoscore®: A Diagnostic Assay for Clinical Management of Colon Cancer” is published on March 30th, 2020 in Molecular Diagnosis and Therapy (Blair, H.A. Mol Diagn Ther (2020)[1] a specialized journal of Springer Nature group that provides researchers and healthcare professionals with insights into the latest molecular diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and their use in precision medicine https://doi.org/10.1007/s40291-020-00459-6).
Immunoscore® is an in vitro diagnostic assay informing the physician about the patient’s immune response on the tumour site. It is provided by HalioDx (https://www.haliodx.com/) and is available to the patients in several countries.
The test predicts the risk of relapse in patients with early-stage colon cancer. It is used to help to guide treatment strategies. Immunoscore uses digital slides of tumour samples analysed via an advanced software to qualify and quantify the densities of specific lymphocytes in defined regions of the tumour (i.e. core tumour and the invasive margin).
From these data, a risk score is calculated. A lower Immunoscore (i.e. lower densities) corresponds to a higher risk of recurrence. In an international, retrospective, validation study led by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), Immunoscore was found to be robust, reproducible, quantitative and standardized, providing a reliable estimate of the risk of recurrence. The clinical utility of Immunoscore has been validated in the SITC-led study and in several other studies where Immunoscore predicted survival, optimal treatment duration and relapse in patients with colon cancer.
Read more about Immunoscore here. Watch the explainer video here.
[1] Molecular Diagnosis & Therapy provides researchers and healthcare professionals with insights into the latest molecular diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and their use in precision medicine.