Maybe helpful for the HN crowd: the adaptive immune response typically prioritizes a low false positive rate. A developing cancer sneaks by as a false negative. Checkpoint blockade moves the immune system to a regime of higher sensitivity, at the expense of potentially lower specificity.
Yes, this. The side effects are not to be underestimated (they are similar to autoimmune disorders). Moreover, there are no good tests yet that can predict whether someone will respond. If someone does, it's sometimes spectacular but with all therapies from the field combined optimally, less than 40-50% responds (with single drugs it's around 10% I believe).
