Thymic Health Emerges as a Pan-Cancer Predictor of Immunotherapy Response
A large real-world and TRACERx NSCLC study shows radiographically assessed thymic health, quantified by a deep-learning CT system, strongly associates with better progression-free and overall survival in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors across several cancers. Thymic health performed comparably to established biomarkers like PD-L1 and tumor mutational burden in prognostication, and its link to T cell receptor diversity and immune pathways supports its relevance as a host-immune biomarker and potential target for timing and strategies to boost immunotherapy efficacy.
