Immuno-Oncology

Nivolumab has improved overall survival versus investigator's choice of therapy for patients with platinum-refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in the phase III CheckMate-141 trial.

Renato Martins, MD, discusses what questions still remain regarding PD-L1 as a biomarker, sequencing, and how nivolumab and pembrolizumab compare head-to-head in non–small cell lung cancer.

Chandra P. Belani, MD, discusses the impact of clinical trials examining atezolizumab and the role of PD-L1 as a predictive and prognostic biomarker for response to the agent in non–small celll lung cancer.

Substantial evidence exists that a subset of squamous cell cancers of the head and neck display phenotypic changes that predict activity for immune checkpoint inhibitors.

An emerging vaccine strategy, of TG4010 immunotherapy and first-line chemotherapy, that could target a potential new biomarker in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has successfully reached a phase III clinical trial, researchers noted.

Mismatch repair-deficient gastrointestinal tumors are highly responsive to checkpoint blockade with anti-PD-1 therapy.

The investigational anti–PD-L1 antibody avelumab demonstrated clinical activity as a second-line and maintenance therapy for patients with unresectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The FDA has expanded the frontline melanoma indications for nivolumab as a single agent and in combination with ipilimumab to include patients with BRAF mutations.

The PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) had an overall response rate of 14% with an acceptable safety profile in patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) elicited encouraging activity with mild adverse events as a treatment for patients with advanced PD-L1–positive esophageal carcinoma.

The immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab demonstrated activity in patients with previously treated esophageal cancer.

Steven Finkelstein, MD, explains why radiation and immunotherapy may be an effective combination in prostate cancer.

The VEGFR inhibitor pazopanib was efficacious independent of T-cell receptor–gamma entropy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma setting.

Questions remain in terms of how to optimally sequence and/or combine both targeted agents and immunotherapies in melanoma.

The optimal frontline treatment strategy for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma could look dramatically different in the next few years, as studies assess combination strategies and predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy and targeted therapies.