Immuno-Oncology

The combination of atezolizumab, carboplatin, and etoposide, as well as durvalumab, etoposide, and platinum chemotherapy, each have shown survival improvements vs chemotherapy alone as frontline therapy in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

This publication reviews the role of single-agent and dual immunotherapy for the treatment of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer, recapping key insights from a scientific interchange & workshop.

The European Commission has approved the combination of nivolumab and cabozantinib as a frontline treatment in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Significant tumor necrosis was observed in 20% of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma who received neoadjuvant treatment with cemiplimab-rwlc.

Neoadjuvant treatment with nivolumab combined with chemotherapy led to a significant improvement in pathologic complete response compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer.

Sequential chemotherapy and immunotherapy became the preferred standard of care in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma, based on findings from the phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial.

Edward B. Garon, MD, discusses immunotherapy treatment considerations for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to the soluble LAG-3 protein eftilagimod alpha for use in the frontline treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Single-agent pembrolizumab resulted in a significant improvement in disease-free survival when used as an adjuvant treatment in patients with renal cell carcinoma following nephrectomy or nephrectomy and resection of metastatic lesions, meeting the primary end point of the phase 3 KEYNOTE-564 trial.

The combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab and nivolumab plus chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant overall survival benefit compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

The FDA has recommended the early termination of a phase 2 trial examining the cell-based immunotherapy ERC1671 in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, cyclophosphamide, and bevacizumab in patients with glioblastoma.

Chemoimmunotherapy has become the standard of care for the frontline treatment of patients with PD-L1–positive, locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. However, understanding which patients will derive the most benefit from the approach is in need of further exploration

Daniel Lin, MD, MS, highlights pivotal trials evaluating immunotherapy regimens in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, remaining sequencing questions, and emerging regimens that are showing promise.

Lakshmi Rajdev, MD, discusses some of the key developments made with immunotherapy in GI cancers and the groundbreaking data that have recently read out to support their use.

The European Commission has approved the combination of cabozantinib plus nivolumab for use as a frontline treatment in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation has awarded C$5,187,685 to the Canadian Cancer Trials Group at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, to fund the infrastructure for a new research platform to coordinate the development of new cancer cell therapies.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has adopted a positive opinion in favor of recommending that the label for pembrolizumab in Europe be updated to include findings from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-361 trial.

The FDA has issued a complete response letter to Merck stating that regulatory decision for the supplemental biologics license application seeking approval for pembrolizumab for use in patients with high-risk, early-stage triple-negative breast cancer plus chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment, then continuing as a single agent as adjuvant treatment following surgery, should be deferred.

The European Medicines Agency has validated its type II variation application for nivolumab as an adjuvant treatment for patients with surgically resected, high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma.

More patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer received sequential chemoradiation and delayed the time to durvalumab treatment in a real-world setting compared with those enrolled on the phase 3 PACIFIC trial.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended the approval of atezolizumab for use as a frontline treatment in adult patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer whose tumors have a high PD-L1 expression and no EGFR or ALK aberrations.

David C. Portnoy, MD, FACP, discusses ongoing studies examining immunotherapy and what is needed to move the needle forward in SCLC.

Namrata (Neena) Vijayvergia, MD, discusses the emerging role of immunotherapy in resectable and metastatic esophageal and gastric cancers, as well as key nuances that could complicate these agents’ utility in clinical practice.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab for use in combination with platinum and fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy for patients with metastatic or locally advanced esophageal or gastroesophageal carcinoma who are ineligible for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation.

The PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab was found to improve disease-free survival over best supportive care when used as an adjuvant treatment in patients with PD-L1–positive, stage II-IIIA non–small cell lung cancer, meeting the primary end point of the phase 3 IMpower010 trial.