Immuno-Oncology

A group of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis recently opened a clinical trial to evaluate pembrolizumab as treatment intensification therapy for patients with high-risk locoregionally advanced, previously untreated, HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.

Luis A. Diaz, Jr. MD, associate professor of Oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the efficacy of PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in heavily pretreated colorectal cancer patients with mismatch repair (MMR).

Jeffrey R. Infante, MD, director, Drug Development Program, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the potential impact avelumab could have on the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer.

The European Commission has approved the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab as a treatment for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma in the first-line and previously treated settings.

Advances in the field of immunotherapy and targeted therapy have brought about new recommendations for patients with melanoma.

The phase III CheckMate-025 trial has been halted after an independent panel determined that nivolumab improved overall survival versus everolimus in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Rita Nanda, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, associate director, Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the efficacy of pembrolizumab and atezolizumab for the treatment of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to the immunotherapy DPX-Survivac as a treatment for women with ovarian cancer.

James J. Lee, MD, PhD, discusses research into mismatch repair deficiency as a biomarker for PD-1 inhibition in colorectal cancer.

Yung-Jue Bang, MD, PhD, discusses pembrolizumab for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. Pembrolizumab was investigated as part of the KEYNOTE-012 study, which looked at the checkpoint inhibitor across several solid tumors.

Second-line treatment with atezolizumab (MPDL3280A) has met the primary endpoint of a pivotal phase II study by effectively shrinking tumors in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial bladder cancer.

Stephen Liu, MD, discusses the results and purpose of the uniquely designed trial examining atezolizumab in combination with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy in treatment-naïve patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

James P. Allison, PhD, was honored in the Scientific Advances category with a 2014 Giants of Cancer Care® award, a program that the Intellisphere® Oncology Specialty Group launched to honor leaders in the field.

Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, summarized novel agents that are currently under exploration for patients with gastric cancer.

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, discusses the rapidly advancing immunotherapy armamentarium in melanoma.

OncLive sat down with Jason J. Luke, MD, discusses the key areas in the treatment of melanoma discussed at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting included selecting appropriate immunotherapy regimens based on PD-L1 status and improving surgical practices.