Wang Z, et al. - Researchers used two independent cohorts of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (48 in cohort 1 and 50 in cohort 2) to investigate if blood tumor mutational burden (TMB) assessed by a next-generation gene sequencing panel with an optimized panel size and algorithm correlated to clinical outcomes in patients who received anti–programmed cell death 1 (anti–PD-1) and anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (anti–PD-L1) agents. They designed a cancer gene panel named NCC-GP150 and used The Cancer Genome Atlas database for its virtual validation. They analyzed matched blood and tissue samples from 48 patients with advanced NSCLC to determine the correlation between bTMB estimated by NCC-GP150 and tissue TMB (tTMB) assessed by WES. Findings highlighted that bTMB estimation is feasible via the NCC-GP150 with an optimized gene panel size and algorithm. They also concluded that for detecting NSCLC patients who could benefit from anti–PD-1 and anti–PD-L1 therapy, the blood tumor mutational burden measured by NCC-GP150 constituted a potential biomarker.