2019 ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress

Patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma showed durable responses following treatment with the novel PD-1 inhibitor prolgolimab.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, discusses the implication of the IMpower110 results in advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

Two analyses presented at the 2019 ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress provided data supporting pembrolizumab, either as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy, as a first-line treatment option in patients with nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer, regardless of KRAS mutational status.

Few immune-mediated adverse events were observed with frontline durvalumab plus platinum-based therapy and etoposide in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, and no treatment-emergent antidrug antibodies were elicited by the PD-L1 inhibitor, according to an analysis of the phase III CASPIAN trial reported at the 2019 ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress.

First-line treatment with nivolumab combined with low-dose ipilimumab was safe and showed encouraging overall survival, regardless of PD-L1 expression, in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer, including those with comorbidities or poor ECOG performance status.

A triplet regimen of the CXCR4 antagonist BL-8040 plus pembrolizumab and standard chemotherapy showed promising antitumor activity in the second-line setting for the treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

The novel combination of sitravatinib and tislelizumab showed encouraging antitumor activity and a manageable safety profile in patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

The first-line combination of nivolumab and platinum-based chemotherapy improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate compared with chemotherapy in patients with squamous non–small cell lung cancer, but did not improve survival in those with nonsquamous disease.

PD-L1-high status, determined via 3 separate immunohistochemistry assays, and blood tumor mutational burden strongly favored atezolizumab over platinum-based chemotherapy and supports the PD-L1 inhibitor as a first-line treatment option in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer.