ASCO 2018: Dr. Borghaei Highlights Immunotherapy Findings in Lung Cancer

Hossein Borghaei, DO, chief of thoracic oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, highlights advancements with PD-/PD-L1 inhibitors for patients with treatment-naïve non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). He presented updated data for the CheckMate-227 trial at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The goal of the study was to analyze progression-free survival (PFS) for patients treated with nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) or nivolumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy compared with patients receiving chemotherapy. Borghaei says that CheckMate-227 establishes the role of tumor mutational burden as a potential biomarker and it shows the clinical efficacy of choosing immunotherapy for patients based on yet another biomarker.

Borghaei also touches on the IMpower150 trial, which he says represents an improvement in overall survival with atezolizumab, bevacizumab (Avastin), and chemotherapy for patients with first-line nonsquamous NSCLC. In the IMpower131 trial, the addition of atezolizumab to carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) or paclitaxel led to a PFS benefit in patients with squamous NSCLC in the frontline setting. He adds that using platinum-doublet chemotherapy alone is no longer an acceptable option in clinical practice.

While the toxicity levels in all these cases were slightly higher with the added agents, Borghaei says they are manageable.