Immuno-Oncology

Drugs currently approved by the FDA for treatment of melanoma include aldesleukin, dabrafenib, dacarbazine, ipilimumab, trametinib, and vemurafenib. This article will explore pharmacologic agents currently being investigated for the treatment of melanoma.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, from the Yale Cancer Center, describes the emergence of immunotherapy as a treatment in multiple types of cancer that was highlighted at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Adding the white blood cell booster granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor to the immunotherapy ipilimumab extended survival in patients with metastatic melanoma when compared with ipilimumab alone and may be a safer alternative than monotherapy.

Nivolumab has demonstrated an overall objective response rate of 31% with a median duration of two years in patients with advanced melanoma.

Mario Sznol, MD, from the Yale Cancer Center, discusses the long-term follow-up results from an expanded phase I study investigating the anti-PD-1 drug nivolumab in patients with advanced melanoma.

New data on emerging immunotherapies and fresh findings about established agents are likely to dominate clinical and marketplace news from this year's Annual Meeting of the ASCO, according to industry analysts.

Arta Monjazeb, MD, and Michael Kent, DVM, from the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, describe an early phase trial exploring the potential of translating successful treatment from dogs to humans with advanced melanoma or sarcoma.

Susan F. Slovin, MD, PhD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, provides an overview of the most promising immunotherapeutic follow-ups to sipuleucel-T in prostate cancer.

Combining the checkpoint antibodies ipilimumab and nivolumab led to deep tumor regression in approximately one-third of patients with advanced melanoma.

An antibody that targets PD-L1 to unleash the body's immune system has demonstrated a 21% response rate in a phase I study of patients with multiple solid tumors, setting the stage for an advance in immunotherapy with broad implications for treatment.

Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, from the Smilow Cancer Center at Yale-New Haven, describes the clinical investigation of the immunotherapeutic vaccine PROSTVAC in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Janos L. Tanyi, MD, PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania, discusses two phase I studies that examined a novel two-step immunotherapy for women with advanced ovarian cancer.

Studies that continue to shed light on the optimal use of sipuleucel-T in men with prostate cancer were presented at the 2013 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

Lambrolizumab, an investigational antibody designed to target the programmed death-1 (PD-1) pathway in patients with melanoma, received a breakthrough therapy designation from the FDA after promising results from a small single-arm study.

Jeanette H.W. Leusen, PhD, focuses on studying the working mechanisms of therapeutic antibodies and the biology of fragment crystallizable receptors, including the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Patients diagnosed with melanoma are typically affected psychologically. Researchers summarized health-related quality of life (HRQOL) during the 12-week ipilimumab induction period in previously treated patients diagnosed with advanced stage III or IV melanoma.

E. David Crawford, MD, from the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, discusses the effectiveness of the immunotherapy sipuleucel-T as a treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer.

Analysis of the cost-effectiveness of ipilimumab compared with best supportive care in previously treated patients with advanced (unresectable or metastatic) melanoma.

AGS-003, a personalized dendritic cell immunotherapy, demonstrated prolonged survival benefits in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, with one-third of those who took the drug during a phase II trial still alive after nearly four years.

Leonard G. Gomella, MD, from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Kimmel Cancer Center, discusses the information currently available on sequencing the recently approved treatments for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

The novel immunotherapy talimogene laherparepvec has become the first oncolytic virus to successfully complete a phase III trial in advanced melanoma.

Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, from the Smilow Cancer Center at Yale-New Haven, discusses the relationship between sipuleucel-T and time to first use of an opioid analgesic in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Robert Dreicer, MD, MS, from the Taussig Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, describes potential combination therapies currently being considered as treatments for men with prostate cancer.

Susan F. Slovin, MD, PhD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, summarizes the development process of an effective immunotherapy for the treatment men with prostate cancer.

Emmanuel Stylianos Antonarakis, MBBCh, from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a phase II trial evaluating the optimal sequence for sipuleucel-T and ADT in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer.