Dr. McGregor on Immunotherapy in Rare Genitourinary Cancers

Bradley McGregor, MD, physician, Genitourinary Oncology program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and instructor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses immunotherapy in rare genitourinary (GU) cancers.

Clinical trials are generally geared toward rapid accrual, says McGregor, which makes accrual for rare cancers very challenging. This has been seen with trials for patients with penile carcinoma or adrenocortical carcinoma, notes McGregor.

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) has demonstrated impressive response rates in patients with renal cell carcinoma. Responses with the combination, says McGregor, seem to be tumor agnostic. Therefore, the combination is being investigated in a basket trial for patients with rare GU tumors who would traditionally be ineligible for standard clinical trials. These include adrenocortical carcinoma, penile carcinoma, and other rare histologies of common cancers.

The trial is an opportunity for patients with rare variants of traditional cancers to experience a novel therapy at any line of their treatment, concludes McGregor.