Immuno-Oncology

Tim F. Greten, MD, senior investigator thoracic and gastrointestinal oncology branch, head, gastrointestinal malignancy section, National Cancer Institute, discusses promising immunotherapy agents being investigated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Urology, co-director, Signal Transduction Research Program, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with bladder cancer.

The FDA has granted pembrolizumab approvals in the frontline and second-line settings for urothelial carcinoma.

Peter Black, MD, senior research scientist, Vancouver Prostate Center, associate professor, Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, discusses combination trials with durvalumab (Imfinzi) for patients with bladder cancer.

Shilpa Gupta, MD, assistant professor, Hematology Oncology and Transplantation Division, University of Minnesota, discusses combining VEGF inhibitors with immunotherapy for patients with kidney cancer.

An epigenetic strategy under study at Cleveland Clinic combines THU, a cytidine deaminase inhibitor, with decitabine and nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The results of early studies demonstrate that THU may help prime the immune system.

Paul G. Corn, MD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the possibility of immunotherapy in patients with prostate cancer.

Durvalumab (Imfinzi) significantly improved progression-free survival when used as a sequential treatment in patients with locally-advanced, unresectable non-small cell lung cancer who had not progressed following standard care with platinum-based chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Daniel Morgensztern, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, Oncology Division, Medical Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, discusses the monumental impact that immunotherapy has had on the field of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

David Spigel, MD, chief scientific officer, director, Lung Cancer Research Program, principal investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the FDA approval of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy as a frontline treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to pembrolizumab for use in combination with pemetrexed plus carboplatin as a frontline treatment for patients with metastatic or advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer, regardless of PD-L1 expression.

Ellen K. Ritchie, MD, highlights current and emerging novel treatments, and the possibility of using immunotherapy to treat patients with systemic mastocytosis, advanced symptomatic hypereosinoophic disorder, myelofibrosis, and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia

Atezolizumab missed the phase III IMvigor211 trial’s primary endpoint of improving overall survival in the second-line setting for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Arlene O. Siefker-Radtke, MD, associate professor, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, clinical co-leader, Bladder SPORE Executive Committee, discusses the FDA approval of avelumab for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma whose disease has progressed after platinum-based therapy.

Susan F. Slovin, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the challenges of immunotherapy in prostate cancer.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab (Bavencio) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma with disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, or within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant platinum-containing chemotherapy.

Daniel Morgensztern, MD, discusses both the single-agent and combination immunotherapy data in non-small cell lung cancer and what researchers are poised to do next in the field.