Immuno-Oncology

Looking ahead to 2020, most participants on an expert panel projected that immunotherapy will be critical to optimizing outcomes in the adjuvant setting for patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Elizabeth Plimack, MD, director of Genitourinary Clinical Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses updated findings from the CheckMate-025 trial, which compared the efficacy of nivolumab (Opdivo) with everolimus (Afinitor) in patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Nicholas G. Cost, MD, assistant professor, Surgery-Urology, Department of Pediatric Urology/ Urologic Oncology, University of Colorado Denver, discusses a clinical trial exploring pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus axitinib (Inlyta) in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Jason Luke, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the role for immunotherapy and targeted agents in patients with BRAF-positive melanoma.

Enrolling clinical trials can be a long process, especially in rare diseases with limited patient populations. This is a particularly significant issue for patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer, an extremely rare and aggressive disease.

Gregory L. Beatty, MD, PhD, who focuses his research on understanding the role of innate immunity in gastrointestinal malignancies, discusses CD47 as an anticancer target.

Mohammed Haseebuddin, MD, a fellow in Urologic Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discuses why continued research into immunotherapy in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is important, particularly in the adjuvant and neoadjuvant settings.

David L. Rimm, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and of medicine, director of pathology tissue services, director of translational pathology, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the continued role for PD-L1 testing to predict response with checkpoint inhibitors in non­–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Jena D. French, PhD, instructor of medicine, division of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes, Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Colorado, discusses the potential for immunotherapy combinations with lenvatinib in differentiated thyroid cancer.

Sumanta Kumar Pal, MD, medical oncologist, assistant clinical professor, Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope, discusses the challenges with sequencing the therapies available for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Pal shared this insight in an interview during the 2016 OncLive State of the Science Summit on GU Cancer.

Jonathan D. Schoenfeld, MD, MPhil, MPH, director, melanoma radiation oncology, physician, assistant professor of radiation oncology, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses challenges with immune suppression with radiation and immunotherapy combinations.

Results from the phase II CheckMate-275 trial demonstrated favorable safety and efficacy with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab as a second-line treatment for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer who have progressed on first-line chemotherapy.

While immunotherapy is currently only beneficial in select cancers, it is possible for this type of treatment to eventually work for all patients.

Immunotherapy has been a game changer in oncology, improving survival and providing long, durable responses in melanoma, lung, head and neck cancer, and others.

The European Medicines Agency has accepted and validated a marketing authorization application for avelumab as a treatment for patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma.

During the past several decades, it has become increasingly clear that there is a complicated relationship between a tumor and the patient’s immune system. Although the genetic and epigenetic changes that fuel cancer development create foreign antigens that should trigger an immune response, one of the hallmarks of cancer is its ability to evade this immune recognition.

​Suzanne L. Topalian, MD, professor of Surgery, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses the role of the PD-L1 biomarker and other biomarkers on the horizon for the use in immunotherapy.