New AI Tool Uses Routine Blood Tests To Predict Immunotherapy Responses

Doctors around the world may soon have access to a new tool that could better predict whether individual cancer patients will benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors — a type of immunotherapy — using only routine blood tests and clinical data.

The artificial intelligence-based model, dubbed SCORPIO, was developed by a team of researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai.

The model is not only cheaper and more accessible, it’s significantly better at predicting outcomes than the two current biomarkers approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to findings published January 6 in Nature Medicine.

“Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a very powerful tool against cancer, but they don’t yet work for most patients,” says study co-senior author Luc Morris, MD, a surgeon and research lab director at MSK. “These drugs are expensive, and they can come with serious side effects.”

So the key is patient selection — matching the drugs with patients who are most likely to benefit, Dr. Morris says.

“There are some existing tools that predict whether tumors will respond to these drugs, but they tend to rely on advanced genomic testing that is not widely available around the world,” he adds. “We wanted to develop a model that can help guide treatment decisions using widely available data, such as routine blood tests.”

Collaborating to Make Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy Work for More Cancer Patients

Checkpoint inhibitors target the immune system rather than the cancer itself. These drugs work by taking the brakes off immune cells, allowing them to better fight cancer. MSK clinicians and scientists played a key role in bringing the new class of drugs to patients.

The new study was jointly overseen by Dr. Morris and Diego Chowell, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy, Oncological Sciences, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and a former postdoctoral fellow at MSK.

Reference: Yoo SK, Fitzgerald CW, Cho BA, et al. Prediction of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy efficacy for cancer using routine blood tests and clinical data. Nat Med. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03398-5

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