IMMUNOTHERAPY

Outpatient treatment with lisocabtagene maraleucel had consistent efficacy and safety with that of a previously reported clinical trial involving patients who were treated at university medical centers, according to results of 3 studies reported at the 2020 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings in Orlando, Florida.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology at the 2020 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings, Craig Sauter, MD, discussed the retrospective real-world review of patients with hematologic malignancies who developed cytopenia post-chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.

Plinabulin in combination with docetaxel, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and pegfilgrastim led to a dose-dependent increase in mean haptoglobin and absolute neutrophil count, demonstrating potency in the stimulation of the adaptive and innate immune system following previous positive efficacy and safety results, according to data analyzed from the phase III BPI-2358-106 study presented at the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology-Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium.

Matthew Krebs, MBChB, PhD, explains the rationale for a phase II study of bemcentinib, a first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor, in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer, which he presented at the 2019 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting.

Jason Luke, MD, FACP, discusses promising clinical research around intratumoral immunotherapy.

The majority of patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia who were participants in a phase I/IIa trial had clinical responses to treatment with TAK-007, a cord blood–derived chimeric antigen receptor natural killer–cell therapy that targets CD19, with no major toxicities experienced by patients, according to a press release from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Jason Williams, MD, the director of Interventional Oncology and Immunotherapy oncologist at the Williams Cancer Institute, discusses a study in which an immunotherapy combination was administered intratumorally to patients with liver metastases linked to breast cancer, which he presented in a poster at the 2019 Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting.

The combination of talimogene laherparepvec plus pembrolizumab led to a promising objective response rate in patients with advanced sarcoma who typically have limited treatment options, according to a phase II clinical trial&nbsp;&nbsp;published in&nbsp;<em>JAMA Oncology</em>.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Shoba A. Navai, MD,&nbsp;discussed the evolving role of CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumors, including sarcomas and how the efficacy and safety compare with CAR T cells in this space compared with hematologic malignancies.

The Investigational New Drug application for small molecule dual antagonist TPST-1495 was cleared by the FDA to begin a clinical investigation into the treatment of prostaglandin-driven tumors, according to a press release from Tempest Therapeutics.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, discussed the highlights from the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium for the treatment of patients with triple-negative breast cancer, as well as those with&nbsp;HER2-positive breast cancer. She also shared her thoughts on the key takeaways from the 2019 meeting.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD,&nbsp;<a>discussed&nbsp;</a>the research around the Tedopi vaccine and how it addresses an unmet medical need for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer who have failed immune checkpoint inhibitors. He also explained the use of genomic testing to aid the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.

Nina Shah, MD, discusses the question of whether CAR T-cell therapy is ready for primetime in patients with multiple myeloma.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Andrew J. Cowan, MD, discussed the findings from the first-in-human clinical trial evaluating the combination of a GSI and BCMA CAR T cells in patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma. He highlighted the next steps for this research and how he sees CAR T-cell therapy evolving over the coming years.

The real-world efficacy and safety demonstrated with tisagenlecleucel, a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy for the treatment of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, was similar to results from the pivotal JULIET trial, according to Samantha Jaglowski, MD professor at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center patients.

The CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel demonstrated promising responses and a manageable toxicity profile in patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic leukemia who have previously progressed on ibrutinib in the updated findings from the phase I/II TRANSCEND CLL 004 study.

Progress in the development of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy and other cell-based therapies has led to new therapeutic options for advanced malignancies. CAR T-cell agents approved by the FDA in recent years include axicabtagene ciloleucel for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and tisagenlecleucel for both DLBCL and acute lymphoblastic leukemia.&nbsp;

Early-stage skin cancers that remain localized are often successfully treated through a variety of surgical techniques as well as radiation therapy, photodynamic therapy, and topical chemotherapy, but advanced cases that are beyond surgery may respond to immunotherapies. This setting will be discussed during the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer&rsquo;s 34th Annual Meeting.

The clinical development and application of cancer immunotherapy over the past decade has translated the long-standing knowledge of the close relationship between cancerous tissues and lymphoid immune cells, dating back to the late 19th century.

A Biologic License Application has been submitted for isocabtagene maraleucel, a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell agent, as a treatment for adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after a minimum of 2 prior therapies, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the manufacturer, reported in a press release.

Bianca D. Santomasso, MD, PhD, discusses the challenges that exist for the treatment of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with CAR T-cell therapy.

Data from the&nbsp;phase Ib/II CARTITUDE-1 trial that were presented at the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting demonstrated the anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy JNJ-4528 achieved a 100% overall response rate with responses in 29 patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.<br /> &nbsp;

An Investigational New Drug application for chimeric antigen receptor-T cell agent, ICTCAR014, has been cleared by the FDA for treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including those with PD-L1-positive tumors, according to a press release from Innovative Cellular Therapeutics.

It is clear that cancer immunotherapy has progressed dramatically over the past 10 years, with over 20 FDA approvals for immune checkpoint receptor inhibitors targeting PD-1 and CTLA-4. However, we are still awaiting the next major advance in these inhibitory receptor targets that yields clinical benefit. In the meantime, additional advances have appeared.

Approximately 20% of cancers worldwide are linked to an infectious agent. Currently, there are seven known oncogenic viruses, which include Epstein-Barr virus, hepatitis virus B and C, human papillomavirus, human T cell lymphoma virus 1, Kaposi sarcoma virus and Merkel cell polyomavirus. Among these agents, HBV, HCV and HPV each contribute to ap- proximately 5% of all cancer cases.

Sarah Murawski, MPAS, discusses how telemedicine can impact the use of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in patients with cancer at the Association of Community Cancer Centers National Oncology Conference.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology during the 2019 Kidney Cancer Research Summit, Wayne A. Marasco, MD, PhD, discussed the intricacy of engineering CAR T cells and the early data he has observed with the approach in RCC.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Partow Kebriaei, MD, discussed the role of transplantation in patients with ALL following treatment with targeted cellular therapies, such as CAR T-cell therapy. She highlights the patient population that receives the most benefit from the use of CAR T-cell therapy and when transplant should be considered for these patients.

Over the last decade, immunotherapeutic options have led to impressive clinical responses in patients with various cancer types and this has increased expectations for successful treatment of the disease. Despite immunotherapy results leading to clinical trials in melanoma, renal cell carcinoma and non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, the percentage of patients who respond to immunotherapy remains low; this highlights the need to identify the patient population that will best respond to these approaches.

Building upon the initial successes of anti&ndash;PD-1 and anti&ndash;CTLA-4 therapies has been a major focus of drug development over the past several years&mdash;basically, in search of other agents that could generate &ldquo;immune-synergy.&rdquo; What the term means and implies is critically important: It refers to drugs that work better together than alone (or in sequence) through their individual mechanisms of action to enhance the host immune-response to cancer.