IMMUNOTHERAPY

The objective response rate with neoadjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) was almost tripled compared with nivolumab alone in patients with high-risk resectable melanoma, according to preliminary findings from a phase II study presented during the 32nd SITC Annual Meeting.

Four researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are joining the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy as a result of a collaboration between the 2 institutions: W. Nick Haining, BCh, BM; Catherine Wu, MD; Philip Kranzusch, PhD; and F. Stephen Hodi, Jr., MD.

The treatment armamentarium of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) is expanding to potentially include novel systemic therapies, a refined understanding of genetic changes in patients with pancreatic NETs, and improvements in surgical timing and quality of life (QoL), according to Diane Reidy Lagunes, MD.

In a small phase I study, engineered tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes demonstrated signs of antitumor activity in patients with metastatic melanoma following treatment with a prior checkpoint inhibitor. Results of the pilot study of TILs that were engineered to express transforming growth factor-β dominant negative receptor and nerve growth factor receptor were presented during the 2017 World Congress of Melanoma.

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, FACS, has been appointed chief medical officer of Replimune Group Inc, a developer of oncolytic immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Kaufman has 25 years of leadership in academic oncology and is recognized as one of the leading physician scientists in the oncolytic immunotherapy field.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) was given an accelerated approval by the FDA for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma following prior treatment with sorafenib (Nexavar). The approval was granted for patients regardless of their PD-L1 status. 

Median overall survival findings from treatment with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) were significantly longer compared with chemotherapy in patients with recurrent, advanced urothelial carcinoma, according to mature results from the phase III KEYNOTE-045 study. 

Prospects for patients with non-small cell lung cancer have improved with the identification of actionable mutations and the development of targeted agents; however, patients without actionable mutations do not experience improved outcomes with these targeted therapies.

Supplemental Biologics License Applications (sBLAs) were sent to and accepted by the FDA for a new dosing schedule for nivolumab (Opdivo) across all of the agent's indications as a montherapy, according to Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), the manufacturer of the PD-1 inhibitor. 

Checkpoint inhibitors against PD-1 and PD-L1 have demonstrated promising efficacy as monotherapies and in combination with chemotherapy for patients with triple-negative breast cancer, with phase III data on the horizon

As a first step toward developing quantitative models, investigators recently developed a mathematical framework to simulate the systemic dissemination of T cells activated in response to focal therapy.

Adding the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy tripled the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate in multiple subtypes of HER2-negative breast cancer, according to results from the ongoing phase II I-SPY-2 clinical research program presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

More than 40% of patients with melanoma brain metastases achieved objective intracranial responses to combination treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy), results of a randomized phase II trial showed.

Treatment with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that target B-cell maturation protein (BMCA) achieved clinical remissions in 33 out of 35 patients (94%) with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma in early results from a Chinese study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

When epacadostat, an IDO1 inhibitor, was combined with pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a PD-1 inhibitor, responses were seen in 35% of patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma, according to findings presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.  

More than half of patients with immunotherapy-relapsed/refractory melanoma benefited from treatment with nivolumab and an anti-lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3) antibody, according to data from an early clinical study.

In updated findings from the KEYNOTE-059 trial of pembrolizumab in advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, the PD-1 inhibitor maintained signs of its clinical benefit in this patient population, which is encouraging as the indication is currently under consideration for approval with the FDA.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) or ipilimumab alone are associated with a high incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity, but most adverse events (AEs) are effectively managed using immunomodulators, which do not appear to inhibit tumor response. Additionally, nivolumab plus ipilimumab significantly improved overall survival (OS) and objective response rate (ORR) versus ipilimumab alone in patients with untreated advanced melanoma.

Combining the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) with the HDAC inhibitor entinostat demonstrated promising clinical activity and acceptable safety in patients with melanoma who were refractory to immune checkpoint inhibitors. 

Barbara McAneny, MD, the chief executive officer of New Mexico Cancer Center, discusses how oral targeted therapies and immunotherapies disrupted the traditional methods for financing community practices.

As immunotherapies become a greater part of the treatment paradigm of various cancers, researchers are spending more time developing ways to determine which patients will respond better to immunotherapy. Mutational load is one such biomarker that appears to have an impact on response to immunotherapy, particularly for checkpoint inhibitors.

As the oncology community adapts to using immunotherapy agents more frequently in cancer treatments, the fear over immune-related adverse events (irAEs) prevents many clinicians from fully trusting immunotherapies.

Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, has been awarded an Outstanding Investigator Award by the National Cancer Institute.

Some key highlights from SITC’s 31st Annual Meeting

Roy Herbst, MD, PhD, discusses the next steps with pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer following its FDA approval, including combination regimens.