Theory 25/The rival says the effect is not there/Oncology
Peak or Plateau?
The claim
Immunotherapy response peaks at intermediate tumour mutation burden because high burden causes exhaustion.
01The rival explanation
Response rises monotonically with burden and the apparent peak is small-sample noise at the high end.
02What would tell them apart
The peak should persist in large registries with adequate high-burden numbers.
03Prediction
Non-response should be enriched at very high burden.
04Refutation
If response is monotonic in large samples, the rival wins.