Immuno-Oncology

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.

​Janice Mehnert, MD, medical oncologist, director, Phase I and Developmental Therapeutics Program, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, discusses challenges with identifying effective biomarkers in for immunotherapy agents.

Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD, associate director for Clinical Research, David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses resistance to immunotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer.

Michael A. Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses some of the exciting advancements seen with immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with melanoma.

Although nivolumab has demonstrated a clear survival advantage compared with chemotherapy in patients with progressive non–small cell lung cancer who express PD-L1 in their tumor cells, the same cannot be said for those who are PD-L1–negative.

Mark G. Kris, MD, medical oncologist, William and Joy Ruane Chair in Thoracic Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses considerations for the management of immunotherapy toxicities.

Yvonne Saenger, MD, director of Melanoma Immunotherapy at Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the importance of developing accurate biomarkers when it comes to administering immunotherapy.

Joel Neal, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, discusses what immunotherapy combinations oncologists are currently using in the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

First-line pembrolizumab demonstrated significant antitumor activity in cisplatin-ineligible patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.

The treatment paradigm of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has been rapidly changing. First, the FDA approved the combination of lenvatinib and everolimus in May 2016 as a treatment for patients with advanced RCC following prior antiangiogenic therapy.

Jonathan D. Schoenfeld, MD, MPhil, MPH, director, melanoma radiation oncology, physician, assistant professor of radiation oncology, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the potential benefit of using radiation and immunotherapy in combination.

Neeraj Agarwal, MD associate professor in the Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, director of the Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, discusses the pox viral vaccine rilimogene galvacirepvec/rilimogene glafolivec (PROSTVAC) and the future of immunotherapy in prostate cancer.

Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the ways in which immunotherapy is slated to play a major role in multiple cancer types.

Rimas V. Lukas, MD, associate professor of Neurology, director, Medical Neuro-Oncology, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses some of the exciting advances recently seen with immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma

Mary Jo Fidler, MD, associate professor, medical oncology, hematology, internal medicine, Rush University Medical Center, discusses how early and persistent oligoclonal T cell expansion correlates with durable response to anti-PD1 therapy in non-small cell lung cancer treatment (NSCLC).

Maria Ignez Braghiroli, MD, medical oncologist, Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo, discusses what the current treatment landscape looks like for patients with colorectal cancer, as well as what the future may hold.

Winald Gerritsen, MD, PhD, professor and medical oncologist, Radboud Medical Center, discusses some of the recent shortcomings seen with immunotherapy agents in the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Marcus Bosenberg, MD, PhD, associate professor of dermatology and pathology, Yale University, discusses mouse models for testing immunotherapies.

Updated results from the CheckMate-205 trial showed that nivolumab had an objective response rate of 73% in a cohort of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma who received brentuximab vedotin before and/or after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Results from an expansion cohort of a preliminary clinical trial have shown encouraging activity for a novel antibody-drug conjugate in patients with heavily pretreated advanced ovarian cancer.

Heather A. Wakelee, MD, associate professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, regent, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) discusses the FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the frontline setting for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).