Dr. Lockhart on Dual-Immunotherapy Strategies in CRC

A. Craig Lockhart, MD, MHS, professor and associate director for Regional and Strategic Clinical Research Affiliations, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System, discusses dual-immunotherapy strategies in colorectal cancer (CRC).

Data have shown that combination immunotherapy could be successful in a subset of patients with CRC, says Lockhart. Microsatellite instability—high tumors are immunogenic, and combination therapy has been evaluated in these patients as a means to enhance response rates.

At the 2018 ESMO Congress, the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) demonstrated a good overall response rate and progression-free survival benefit with manageable toxicity in treatment-naïve patients with metastatic MSI-H/mismatch repair-deficient tumors. Subsequent follow-up from the phase II CheckMate-142 trial showed a robust and durable clinical benefit in this patient population. Although the study was relatively small, the regimen could potentially be considered for use in the frontline setting, concludes Lockhart.