Immuno-Oncology

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.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the role of immunotherapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Jeffrey P. Ward, MD, PhD, discusses the questions researchers still face about targeting the immune system and exactly what role T-cell receptor therapy could play in the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The European Commission has approved pembrolizumab for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma who have progressed following autologous stem cell transplant and brentuximab vedotin, or who are transplant-ineligible and have failed brentuximab vedotin.

Hans J. Hammers, MD, PhD, associate professor, Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses the combination of vaccines and immune checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Aarti Bhatia, MD, highlights the newer single agents and combination treatments being investigated for patients with head and neck cancer.

Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, associate professor, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the challenges associated with treating neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

Andrea B. Apolo, MD, medical oncologist at the National Cancer Institute, chief of the bladder cancer section of the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, discusses avelumab (Bavencio) in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma from the phase Ib JAVELIN solid tumor trial.

Siddhartha Devarakonda, MD, discusses the importance of testing for molecular markers in NSCLC, rare mutations, and what work lies ahead for the field of lung cancer.

Bruno Sangro, MD, PhD, discusses the CheckMate-040 data and the future of immuno-oncology agents in HCC.

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 the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma whose disease has progressed on standard platinum‑based chemotherapy.

Bradley J. Monk, MD, shares his insight on the potential of immunotherapy in ovarian cancer, as well as what promise it might hold in other gynecologic malignancies.

Matthew Gubens, MD, an assistant professor of thoracic oncology at the University of California San Francisco, discusses the prevalence of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who harbor mutations in EGFR/ALK/ROS1 as well as PD-L1 expression.

Tanguy I. Seiwert, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses some final opinions on immunotherapy agents in the landscape of head and neck cancer.

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