IMMUNOTHERAPY

An overview of the data and rationale that led to the approval of nivolumab and pembrolizumab for NSCLC, with an emphasis on specific patient populations likely to benefit from this approach and future directions for clinical research in this area.

In an interview, Yvonne Saenger, MD, discussed ongoing developments with immunotherapy in melanoma.

The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s (SITC) Annual Meeting & Associated Programs are renowned as a catalyst for future advances in the cancer immunotherapy field. This year marks the 31st such conference (SITC 2016), which will be held in National Harbor, Maryland from November 9 to 13, 2016.

James Allison, PhD, discusses exciting advancements in immunotherapy combinations, the potential synergistic effects of radiation with immunotherapies, and considerations that must be made when combining other agents with immunotherapy.

For the first time, Physicians’ Education Resource (PER®) will host 2 European conferences, providing more opportunities for oncology professionals worldwide to learn and collaborate with leading experts in the fields.

Matthew Galsky, MD, professor of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, discusses the significant findings in, and the rationale behind conducting the CheckMate-275 trial during an interview at the 2016 ESMO Congress.

Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD, details 5 categories of immunotherapy strategies currently undergoing development.

Recent randomized clinical trials that have combined immunotherapy with chemotherapy, molecular therapy, or anti-angiogenic therapy for the treatment of patients with lung cancer have shown promising results for these combinations. 

As new drugs and combinations gain approvals for a broad range of malignancies, there is a growing need for disease-specific recommendations to help guide the integration of immunotherapy treatments into current practice. 

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Naiyer Rizvi, MD, director of Thoracic Oncology and Immunotherapy at Columbia University Medical Center, discusses data from the&nbsp;phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial and expressed his optimism about immunotherapy in the NSCLC field.

Newer agents, including immunotherapies and HER2 and VEGF-targeted therapies, are being investigated in gastric cancer, but the jury is still out on if these therapies will be beneficial, said David H. Ilson, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.<br /> &nbsp;

Hope Rugo, MD, clinical professor, department of medicine, and director of Breast Oncology Clinical Trials Program, at University of California, San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the role of immunotherapy in breast cancer.

Hope S. Rugo, MD, discusses&nbsp;immunotherapies, androgen receptor (AR)-targeted agents, and targeted therapies all on the horizon in TNBC.

Goals of &quot;Project Impact: A Campaign to Defeat Pediatric Brain Tumors&quot;&nbsp;include improving clinical outcomes for pediatric brain tumor patients and informing the development of the first-ever standard of care for treating pediatric high-grade gliomas.

As therapeutic approaches with more efficacy and less toxicity are still highly needed, researchers are currently working to identify new targets in the MB field.

Marco Davila, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses MDS as an immunoresponsive disease and applying immunotherapies to MDS.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) continues to post &ldquo;highly encouraging&rsquo;&rdquo; and durable responses in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) regardless of whether they had hepatitis B or C or whether they had received prior treatment with sorafenib (Nexavar), according to the lead investigator on the early-phase study.

Immunotherapy offers promise in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a disease type which has not seen significant progress in many years, said Naval G. Daver, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Richard S. Finn, MD, an associate professor of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, discusses the role of immunotherapy in the treatment of liver cancer.

Yvonne Saenger, MD, director, melanoma immunotherapy, Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the impacts of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in melanoma.

Researchers are further exploring the possibility of using an immunotherapeutic vaccinia virus to treat advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), according to Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD.

Merck, the manufacturer of pembrolizumab (Keytruda), has announced the FDA has granted priority review to a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for the PD-1 inhibitor as a first-line treatment for patients with PD-L1-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Blinatumomab (Blincyto) has received accelerated approval from the FDA for the treatment of pediatric and adolescent patients with Philadelphia chromosome-negative (Ph-) relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

<div>Though Nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) have demonstrated considerable success in the field of metastatic melanoma as both single agents and in combination, questions remain regarding sequencing the agents and the high toxicities that often occur when the 2 immunotherapies are used together.<br /> &nbsp;</div>

Melanoma research is rapidly advancing, explains Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, particularly with immunotherapy.<br /> <br /> &nbsp;

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) demonstrated promising antitumor activity with durable responses in patients with advanced thyroid cancer, according to results from the KEYNOTE-028 trial presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. The overall response rate (ORR) with the PD-1 inhibitor was 9.1%, which included 2 partial responses (PR).

The field of metastatic bladder cancer&mdash;an area that had long been stagnant&mdash;has quickly evolved with the recent FDA approval of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) coupled with the breakthrough therapy designation of nivolumab (Opdivo).

Not all gastroesophageal junction cancers should be treated the same, according to Richard J. Bold, MD.

While the utilization of immunotherapy in gastric cancer may not be as clear cut as it is in melanoma or lung cancer, Zev Wainberg, MD, illustrates some trials where the therapy type is breaking through.

The FDA approval of pembrolizumab as a treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in August 2016 was extremely significant for this patient population, which previously had limited options following progression on a platinum-based chemotherapy.