Immuno-Oncology

Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and coleader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, discusses nivolumab's potential as a treatment of patients with head and neck cancer, as reported in the CheckMate-141 study.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to durvalumab as a treatment for patients with PD-L1–positive inoperable or metastatic urothelial bladder cancer following progression on prior treatment with a platinum-based regimen.

Naiyer Rizvi, MD, discusses the role of PD-L1 testing, which PD-1/PD-L1 agents have the most potential, and what is on the horizon for the use of immunotherapies in non-small cell lung cancer.

The search for immune system biomarkers that could prove clinically useful in treating patients with breast cancer is yielding promising results, particularly in triple-negative subtypes.

Renato G. Martins, MD, MPH, medical director, Outpatient General Oncology/Hematology, Thoracic/Head and Neck Oncology, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, professor, University of Washington School of Medicine, discusses patient selection for nivolumab (Opdivo) as a treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Arjun V. Balar, MD, discusses the phase II data demonstrating the efficacy of atezolizumab as a single agent, its potential as part of combination regimens, and planned clinical trials looking at immunotherapy in patients with metastatic bladder cancer.

Toni Choueiri, MD, discusses the CheckMate-025 and METEOR trials and the potential for nivolumab and cabozantinib in the first- and second-line settings for treating renal cell carcinoma.

A combination checkpoint blockade with the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab and the anti–CTLA-4 agent tremelimumab induced a response rate of 23% in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, professor of Immunology, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses PD-L1 as a predictive biomarker for immunotherapy in patients with bladder cancer.

The role of immunotherapy is emerging as an effective, and in some cases, dramatic treatment in the non-small cell lung cancer landscape.

Suresh Ramalingam, MD, professor, Emory School of Medicine, and chief, Medical Oncology, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University, discusses combinations with immunotherapy agents and chemotherapy being investigated as potential treatments for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

Richard Joseph, MD, discusses the challenges of treating mucosal melanoma and what oncologists need to know prior to using immunotherapies for the treatment of both mucosal and cutaneous melanomas.

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, discusses remaining questions regarding T-VEC, the impact of the FDA approval, and its future potential.

Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, discusses CheckMate-141, the biggest remaining challenges in head and neck cancer, and the potential for nivolumab as a treatment of patients with the disease.

ASCO has named immunotherapy, targeting agents that block PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint across a vast array of tumor types, as its “Cancer Advance of the Year.”

The FDA issued a complete response letter to Telesta Therapeutics informing the company that its biologics license application for MCNA in bladder cancer would not be approved and that an additional phase III clinical trial was needed to adequately evaluate the immunotherapy.

Combining nivolumab (Opdivo) with radiation therapy may provide better disease control and prolong overall survival in patients with melanoma whose disease has metastasized to the brain, compared with standard current treatment.

Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, discusses the implications of the expanded FDA approval of nivolumab, and the potential for the PD-1 inhibitor as both a single agent and as part of a combination regimen in advanced melanoma

Treatment with allogeneic anti–CD19 chimeric antigen receptor–modified T cell therapy induced complete remissions in 30% of patients with advanced progressive B-cell malignancies without causing graft-versus-host disease.

Nivolumab has improved overall survival versus investigator's choice of therapy for patients with platinum-refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in the phase III CheckMate-141 trial.

Renato Martins, MD, discusses what questions still remain regarding PD-L1 as a biomarker, sequencing, and how nivolumab and pembrolizumab compare head-to-head in non–small cell lung cancer.

Chandra P. Belani, MD, discusses the impact of clinical trials examining atezolizumab and the role of PD-L1 as a predictive and prognostic biomarker for response to the agent in non–small celll lung cancer.

Substantial evidence exists that a subset of squamous cell cancers of the head and neck display phenotypic changes that predict activity for immune checkpoint inhibitors.

An emerging vaccine strategy, of TG4010 immunotherapy and first-line chemotherapy, that could target a potential new biomarker in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has successfully reached a phase III clinical trial, researchers noted.

Mismatch repair-deficient gastrointestinal tumors are highly responsive to checkpoint blockade with anti-PD-1 therapy.

The investigational anti–PD-L1 antibody avelumab demonstrated clinical activity as a second-line and maintenance therapy for patients with unresectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The FDA has expanded the frontline melanoma indications for nivolumab as a single agent and in combination with ipilimumab to include patients with BRAF mutations.

The PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) had an overall response rate of 14% with an acceptable safety profile in patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) elicited encouraging activity with mild adverse events as a treatment for patients with advanced PD-L1–positive esophageal carcinoma.