Not everyone with cancer qualifies for immunotherapy. Eligibility depends on factors including cancer type, disease stage, specific tumor biomarkers, and overall health. 

The decision is typically made on a case-by-case basis by a patient’s oncology team.

Factors that Affect Immunotherapy Eligibility

A physician will typically evaluate:

• Cancer type and stage — some immunotherapies are only approved for advanced or metastatic disease
• Biomarker testing — labs may test for PD-L1 expression, microsatellite instability (MSI-H), mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR), or tumor mutational burden (TMB) to predict response
• Prior treatments — some immunotherapy drugs are approved after chemotherapy has been tried; others are used as first-line treatment
• Overall health and performance status — patients must be healthy enough to tolerate potential immune-related side effects
• Autoimmune conditions — existing autoimmune diseases may increase the risk of side effects and could affect eligibility

FDA-Approved Immunotherapy Cancer Treatment

The FDA has approved immunotherapy treatments for cancers such as:

• Melanoma — one of the first cancer types where checkpoint inhibitors showed major survival benefits
• Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) — checkpoint inhibitors are approved as first-line treatments for certain patients
• Bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer — multiple FDA-approved options available
• Head and neck cancers — approved for recurrent or metastatic disease
  Certain blood cancers (Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia) — CAR-T cell therapy and checkpoint inhibitors may apply
• Colorectal cancer with specific biomarkers (MSI-H or dMMR status)
• Some solid tumors with high tumor mutational burden (TMB-H), regardless of cancer type

Read more about cancer and immunotherapy cancer medications here: 

• https://ameripharmaspecialty.com/conditions-treatments/cancer/
• https://ameripharmaspecialty.com/cancer/understanding-gazyva-an-immunotherapy-cancer-medication/