Dr. Papadimitrakopoulou on Immunotherapy Combinations in Lung Cancer

Vassiliki A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, professor, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses trials investigating combinations of immunotherapy regimens in lung cancer.

The combination of chemotherapy and anti—PD-1 appears to be active in all-comers with no prerequisite or high expression of PD-L1, making this indication an interesting proposition for patients who may not be candidates for the standard of care pembrolizumab (Keytruda), explains Papadimitrakopoulou.

In regards to the combination of anti—PD-1 and anti–CTLA-4, the frontline study that included a small number of patients investigated the combination of nivlolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) and suggested high response rates and a long duration of response. However, the data from this study is limited and there needs to be confirmatory trials with larger groups of patients, states Papadimitrakopoulou.