The aim of personalised cancer immunotherapy ( PCI ) is to provide individual patients with treatment options that are tailored to their specific needs.

PCI research and development programme comprises more than 20 investigational candidates, nine of which are in clinical trials. All studies include the prospective evaluation of biomarkers to determine which people may be appropriate candidates for the medicines.

In the case of Atezolizumab, PCI begins with the PD-L1 ( programmed death ligand-1 ) IHC assay based on the SP142 antibody developed by Roche Tissue Diagnostics.

The goal of PD-L1 as a biomarker is to identify those people most likely to experience clinical benefit with Atezolizumab as a single agent versus those who may benefit more from combination approaches; the purpose is to inform treatment strategies which will give the greatest number of patients a chance for transformative benefit.

The ability to combine Atezolizumab with multiple chemotherapies may provide new treatment options to people across a broad range of tumours regardless of their level of PD-L1 expression. ( Source: Roche )