Serum Ferritin Level Can Be Used as Biomarker for Immunotherapy Efficacy

The level of serum ferritin in a patient with lung cancer is an effective prognostic factor for the disease in predicting immunotherapy efficacy, a recent study showed.

More than 100 patients (83 men and 24 women), with a median age of 64 years, were enrolled in the study. They had one of the following disease types: small cell lung cancer (SCLC; n=28), lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC; n=20), or non-small nonsquamous cell carcinoma (n=59).

Serum ferritin levels were measured before and during immunotherapy treatment. Fei Wang, MD, and colleagues evaluated the correlation between ferritin levels, response rate, and survival.

Longer PFS was seen in patients with low serum ferritin levels (7 months) before immunotherapy than in patients with high serum ferritin levels (4 months). Moreover, patients with low serum ferritin levels also had a higher disease control rate (DCR).

In addition, some patients were downregulated or upregulated during immunotherapy. The researchers observed that downregulated serum ferritin levels resulted in longer PFS than upregulated (9.5 months vs 4.0 months, respectively). Downregulation also showed higher DCR.

“We demonstrated for the very first time that basal serum ferritin levels before immunotherapy and corresponding changes during immunotherapy are both strong independent prognostic factors for patients with lung cancer and can be used to predict immunotherapy response,” the researchers said.