Immuno-Oncology

Three recent drug approvals have shifted the landscape in the second-line setting for renal cell carcinoma, and researchers are now setting their sights on transforming upfront care.

Alan P. Venook, MD, The Madden Family Distinguished Professor of Medical Oncology and Translational Research at the University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the potential that immunotherapy may have in the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer.

Treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab showed promising results in patients with recurrent malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses some of the novel approaches with immunotherapy that he would like to explore in the future treatment of patients with gynecologic cancers.

Although randomized phase III clinical trials often lead to groundbreaking drug approvals and offer novel therapeutic regimens, Maurie Markman, MD, insists that the search for validated, actionable biomarkers is more important than initiation of new studies.

Immunotherapy may be having a moment in the changing landscape of bladder cancer, but expert Gopa Iyer, MD, advises that there is much research to be done before physicians replace chemotherapy with these agents upfront.

The field of lung cancer has undoubtedly seen notable advances over the past year—especially with the game-changing November 2016 approval of pembrolizumab for the frontline treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

Beyond the strong efficacy outcomes observed with single-agent immunotherapies in non–small cell lung cancer—including pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and atezolizumab—the field is now awaiting the next phase: combination regimens.

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, associate director, Clinical Research, Breast Oncology, Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers, senior physician, instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses a phase Ib/II trial exploring eribulin mesylate (Halaven) in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

The combination of pembrolizumab and eribulin demonstrated a 33.3% objective response rate for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who received 0 to 2 prior lines of therapy.

The FDA has granted a priority review to a biologics license application for the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma whose disease has progressed on standard platinum‑based chemotherapy.

Early data from a phase I/II study suggest that the combination of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) and nivolumab (Opdivo) may be an active and well-tolerated outpatient regimen in patients with relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of standard frontline chemotherapy.

Patients with non–small cell lung cancer treated in the pembrolizumab arm of the KEYNOTE-024 trial experienced improved quality of life compared with patients who were treated with standard chemotherapy.

Claire Verschraegen, MD, professor of Medical Oncology, University of Vermont Cancer Center, discusses the results of the JAVELIN Solid Tumor trial during an interview at the IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna, Austria.

Robert G. Uzzo, MD, discusses the promise of immunotherapies as well as the challenges with using them across different indications in renal cell carcinoma.

Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, sheds light on the emerging roles of both immunotherapy and targeted agents in the treatment of patients with bladder cancer.

Findings from an efficacy update of patients participating in a study in the CheckMate series revealed that first-line nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated activity in advanced non–small cell lung cancer, and the addition of ipilimumab (Yervoy) resulted in enhanced activity, specifically in prolonged progression-free survival and higher objective response rates.

Treatment with first-line avelumab yielded promising clinical benefit and durable antitumor activity in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

While treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) significantly improved overall survival over docetaxel in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer in the CheckMate-057 trial, an analysis of deaths occurring within 3 months of initiation of therapy showed numerically more deaths in the nivolumab arm.

Treatment with the combination of pembrolizumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone demonstrated promising durable efficacy and a tolerable safety profile for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Treatment with the combination of nivolumab and ibrutinib showed encouraging activity and safety in a small phase II study of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Richter transformation.

Checkpoint blockade immunotherapies that have moved quickly from the development stage to clinical use in a range of solid tumors are also being explored in hematologic malignancies.

Scott J. Antonia, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Thoracic Oncology at Moffit Cancer Center, discusses immunotherapies that are emerging in the field of lung cancer.

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental biologics license application for pembrolizumab for use as a treatment for patients with refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma or those who have relapsed after ≥3 lines of therapy,

Immunotherapy combinations have significant potential as treatment for patients with renal cell carcinoma.