IMMUNOTHERAPY

Two strategies of successive immunotherapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma recently showed similar safety and tolerability, yet substantially different efficacy.

Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc recently announced it has completed development of its protocol for phase Ib/II testing in patients with stage IV melanoma.

Over a fifth of patients with previously treated advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma showed a measureable response, when treated with pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor.

Clinical evaluation suggests a role for immune checkpoint inhibition in the treatment of patients with lymphomas, but early success has also raised many questions.

A sarcoma study arm of the phase II portion of the multiarm PembroPlus clinical trial that combines immunotherapy with chemotherapy has commenced at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), Western Regional Medical Center, Goodyear, Arizona

The Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference commenced September 16, 2015, in New York City, and one presentation detailed Biothera's new biomarker strategy in patient selection for the company's investigational cancer immunotherapy, Imprime PGG.

Frequency of the cell death-regulating protein Bim (BCL-2-interacting mediator of cell death) may predict patient response to PD-1 inhibitor immunotherapy.

Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses immunotherapy in myelofibrosis.

Activation of T-cell function has become a main focus of immunotherapeutic approaches aimed at enhancing an anticancer immune response and suppressing mechanisms used by tumor cells for immune evasion.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy), a chemotherapy-free regimen, showed activity as a first-line therapy for patients who have advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A novel immunotherapy, EGEN-001, combined with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) has demonstrated clinical benefit in recurrent or persistent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer patients.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) was given a priority review designation by the FDA for patients with previously treated nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Judd W. Moul, MD, urologic oncologist, Duke Medicine, discusses the impact of immunotherapy in prostate cancer.

A priority review designation was recently assigned by the FDA to the intravesical immunotherapy MCNA as a treatment for patients who have high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, following first-line bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy.

Bishoy M. Faltas, MD, Fellow, Hematology/Oncology, Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses immunotherapy in platinum-resistant bladder cancer.

Sonidegib (Odomzo) was approved by the EC for the treatment of patients who have locally advanced basal cell carcinoma (laBCC) and are not amenable to curative surgery or radiation therapy.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, chief of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, discusses immunotherapy in squamous and nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has received priority review from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as frontline treatment for patients with advanced melanoma.

Jason J. Luke, MD, FACP, assistant professor of medicine, The University of Chicago, discusses the efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in melanoma.

AstraZeneca’s MedImmune has entered into a licensing agreement and collaboration with Inovio Pharmaceuticals, whereby MedImmune was given exclusive rights to Inovio’s INO-3112 immunotherapy.

The review period for frontline nivolumab (Opdivo), in patients who have advanced melanoma, recently received an extension of three months by the FDA, in order to allow ample time for review of the additional data submitted by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)

Catherine Alix-Panabières, PhD, and her colleagues, demonstrate the expression of PD-L1 on CTCs in patients with HR+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer.

On November 7, 2015, some of the leading experts in oncology, together with other oncology healthcare professionals involved in the treatment and management of patients with lung cancer, will gather in Manhattan for the 10th Annual New York Lung Cancer Symposium®.

Almost 10 years following a study that proved intraperitoneal (IP), or abdominal, chemotherapy, along with intravenous (IV) therapy, may add 16 months or more to the lives of women with ovarian cancer, less than half of these patients at US hospitals receive this type of treatment

Updated findings from the KEYNOTE-012 trial have demonstrated promising antitumor activity with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with metastatic gastric cancer.

Matthew Cooperberg, MD, genitourinary cancer specialist, University of California San Francisco, discusses the impact of immunotherapy on the treatment of prostate cancer. Cooperberg believes immunotherapy treatment should be used earlier in the course of the disease.

Precision medicine with TKIs and immunotherapies is revolutionizing the treatment of patients with NSCLC. Paul A. Bunn, Jr, MD, head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado, discussed the current translational advances with these agents in a discussion held at this year’s International Lung Cancer Congress.

Paul A. Bunn, Jr., MD, distinguished professor, Division of Medical Oncology, University of Colorado, James Dudley Chair in Lung Cancer Research, Lung Cancer: Giant of Cancer Care, discusses immunotherapy in lung cancer.

The biomarker E2F4 predicts survival in breast cancer, and an article recently published in the journal Molecular Cancer Research indicates that E2F4 may also predict progression and immunotherapy efficacy in bladder cancer.

Tanguy Seiwert, MD, assistant professor of medicine, associate leader, Head and Neck Cancer Program, University of Chicago, discusses the significance of pembrolizumab in head and neck cancer.