Dr. Hurwitz on Patient Cohorts in the PIVOT-02 Trial

Michael E. Hurwitz, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the various patient cohorts in the ongoing phase I/II PIVOT-02 trial.

In the phase II portion of the trial, patients with a number of solid tumors will receive the combination of bempegaldesleukin (NKTR-214) and nivolumab (Opdivo). Some of the tumor types that are being evaluated in the trial include melanoma, lung cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, sarcoma, and breast cancer. At the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, data for the melanoma and bladder cancer cohorts were presented. In both cohorts, patients received the combination as frontline therapy, says Hurwitz. Notably, in the bladder cancer cohort, only platinum-ineligible patients and those who refused platinum were eligible for enrollment.

In the metastatic melanoma cohort, patients experienced an objective response rate (ORR) >50% and a complete response rate of 34%. In metastatic bladder cancer, the ORR was 44%, which is significantly higher than what is typically seen with nivolumab monotherapy or other immune checkpoint inhibitors, concludes Hurwitz.